Giro d’Italia Women stage 6 LIVE: A four rider breakaway is caught more than 50km from the line as a technical section and crosswinds split the bunch

This has been a serious problem for Reusser and Movistar, though they’re only 20 seconds behind now, it’s taken a huge effort just to close 35 seconds.
The wind is blowing, and had there been less shelter from trees and buildings, they may never have got back on.

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Reusser is a strong rider and is doing the work to close the 30 second gap herself, despite having the rest of her team on the wheel at the front of a large group of around 40 riders.

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The Vollering group has reached the Van der Breggen group, creating a decent sized peloton.
The breakaway is caught.

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A big group containing Marled Reusser, most of her Movistar team and other big names, is more than 30 seconds behind the Van der Breggen group. In turn, the Van der Breggen group is only 20 seconds behind the breakaway.

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Vollering’s group is only around 100m behind and is certain to get back on. Other groups may well be less lucky.
This is why Van der Breggen and her team have been close to the front all day.

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The breakaway lead bay only 1.15 now.
What wind there is will be coming from the riders’ left shoulder, but the road is slightly shltered by trees.

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With some gaps in the peloton, Van der Breggen goes to the front of the leading group and nails it, putting pressure on Demi Vollering (FDJ United-SUEZ), who’s caught in the second group.

Now we’re onto the plain, the bunch is out of the village. This is where the possibility of crosswinds will begin. The pelton is split up, though most are likely to get back on.
Bezzone, Spimi, Segato and Cagnazzo lead by onlt two minutes.

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UNO-X riding brilliantly on the front through Volta Mantovana, stretching the bunch right out.

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The road surface isn’t brilliant either. Let’s hope everyone gets through safely.

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These streets are super-narrow, the breakaway are fine, but there’ll be a huge fight for position in the bunch.

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The pace is suddenly up, a number of teams trying to get to the front, UNO-X Mobility among them, SD Worx are there too, Van der Breggen well protected.

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The drop off the escapement is close now. The drops and winds through the village of Volta Mantovana, with some tight bends and steep negative gradients of -12%.
Everyone will need to be attentive.

Having taken 30 seconds off their deficit quite quickly, the peloton has just backed off now.
Bezzone, Spimi, Segato and Cagnazzo lead by 3.10. The bunch have them completely in the palm of their hands.

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The wind is blowing on the Po Valley, but only at 10km/h, that’s unlikely to be enough to split the race up. But teams will need to be on their guard when they get there.

The breakaway’s time is being eroded very slightly now. That escarpment is not too far away and positioning will be key should the wind blow.
Bezzone, Spimi, Segato and Cagnazzo lead by 3.39.

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It’s interesting to see how close race leader Anna van der Breggen is to the front of the peloton. This is for safety reasons, the fewer riders are in front of you, the less likely you are to be caught behind or affected by a crash.

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Despite this being almost nailed on for a sprint, the safety zone for the GC times is at 3km from the line, as opposed to 5km for the earlier sprint days.
This means that should anyone suffer a mechanical or crash in that zone, they will receive the same GC time as the other riders they were with when the incident occurred.

Bezzone, Spimi, Segato and Cagnazzo continue to lead by 4.106, the sprinters’ teams are doing the work to control the gap.

(Image credit: Getty Images)

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There’s a small climb coming up soon at Zappo. It’s unclassified and far from steep, but it will upset the rhythm for some riders.

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The sprinters’ teams are in control of the peloton, Charlotte Kool’s Fenix-Premier Tech on the front, but with Elisa Balsamo’s Lidl-Trek close at hand.

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We reach the southern end of Lake Garda at the stage’s half way mark, 80km, in Peschiera del Garda, then, 20km later, the route drops down an escarpment into the plain of the Po Valley.

It’s really tough having the longest stage of the race the day after the one with the most climbing. There’s doubtless some deep fatigue in the bunch, but that’s part of what stage racing is about.
Bezzone, Spimi, Segato and Cagnazzo continue to lead by four minutes.

(Image credit: Getty Images)

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The advantage for the breakaway has now settled properly at around the four minute mark.
All four riders up the road are Italian, representing three of the four Italian Continental level teams in the race.
Sharon Spimi has been up the road already this Giro, on stage one.

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Demi Vollering got her stage win, but how’s she looking for the general classification?

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This road along the coast of Lake Garda is not as straightforward as it might seem. With the race apparently in relaxed mood, the tunnels and narrower sections could punish any lapses in concentration, and we could see some crashes. Let’s hope not.

The breakaway’s lead is not increasing quickly, but Bezzone, Spimi, Segato and Cagnazzo are now four minutes ahead of the bunch.

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We saw a brilliant, battling ride from Elisa Longo Borghini (UAE Team ADQ) yesterday.

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There are plenty of tunnels along the shore of Lake Garda, here the peloton pass through, with Urška Žigart (AG Insurance-Soudal) in her customary position on the flat roads, with the Visma-LEase a Bike pair of Margaux Vigié and Marion Bunel nearby.

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Bezzone, Spimi, Segato and Cagnazzo have increased their lead to 3.50. It seems the pattern of the day is set.

(Image credit: Getty Images)

We’re almost at the bottom of the descent and Bezzone, Spimi, Segato and Cagnazzo’s lead has extended to three minutes.

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So it’s unlikely SD Worx-Protime will ride for a sprint today, though they almost certainly compete should the stage conclude that way. Expect either Barbara Guarischi or, more likely, Femke Gerritse to have a go.

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With the loss of both Lorena Wiebes and Mikayla Harvey, SD Worx have a depleted team and they will to be firing on all five cylinders for Saturday’s Alpine stage.

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It’s a long stage today and with only four riders up the road, the peloton may well allow them a huge lead. Segato is the closest to Anna van der Breggen on the GC, but she’s at 23.51, giving SD Worx little incentive to ride.

Bezzone, Spimi, Segato and Cagnazzo seem to be established very quickly, their lead is already approaching two minutes, before the descent we mentioned.

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Camilla Bezzone (Mendelspeck E-Work), Sharon Spimi (Top Girls Fassa Bortolo) and the Vini Fantini-Be Pink pair of Gaia Segato and Irene Cagnazzo have already built a lead of more than one minute.

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And we have a small break of four women up the road already.

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After 16km the peloton will drop down a 5km descent to Riva del Garda, on the shores of the lake, then it’s kilometre after beautiful kilometre along the lake shore.

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Anna van der Breggen (SD Worx-Protime) successfully defended the overall lead yesterday, despite having a small support team.

Let’s go racing! From Ala, out of the hills and onto the Po Valley for what should be a sprint in Brescello, 160km later.

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Once by the lake it’s still a little lumpy, but at 95km the riders will descend onto the flat plain of the Po Valley, and the final 60km contains only 100m of vertical ascent. And let’s not forget that wind.

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We might still be up in the hills, but there’s only 657m of climbing today as we head downhill to the eastern shore of Lake Garda, which the race follows all the way south.

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And we’re rolling for stage 6, we start with 3.9km of neutral. Its a beautiful day, with highs of about 28º and little chance of rain. There is wind, though, 15 km/h or more, and with the flat exposed nature of the second part of the course, there just might be some action.

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Good morning once again, it’s stage 7 of the Giro d’Italia Women, stay with us once again for updates of the entire stage.

Today it’s back to the flat lands for what we can expect to be a sprint stage, though with huge time gaps on GC maybe a breakaway will take the day. We roll at 13:50CET.