Giro d’Italia: Davide Ballerini avoids mass crash, speeds to stage 6 victory in Naples

Four breakaway riders in a line (Image credit: Getty Images)

Stage 6 of the Giro d’Italia took the race to Naples for the fifth consecutive year, with a sprint finish again on the cards following triumphs by Mads Pedersen, Olav Kooij, and Kaden Groves in the past three editions.

The 141km run from the ancient Greek ruins of Paestum was largely flat, the only major challenge of the day coming in the form of the fourth-category climb at Cava de’ Tirreni (6.4km at 3%) after 40km of racing.

The final, though, was altered from previous Naples finishes, with the peloton instead posed with a more technical run-in, including a stretch of cobbled city streets.

A day on from the breakaway’s triumph in Potenza, there wasn’t much for potential breakaway riders to go at today, then. But that didn’t prevent five riders from taking off 10km into the stage.

Alpecin-Premier Tech, shorn of their leader and sprint hope Kaden Groves, sent Luca Vergallito and Edward Planckaert up the road, the duo racing clear without any other teams joining them.

Not until Manuele Tarozzi (Bardiani CSF-Saber 7) attacked after 28km, anyway. The Italian, fifth in the mountain classification, took his chance before the start of the day’s climb and was soon joined by his teammate Martin Marcellusi and Polti-VisitMalta rider Mattia Bais in the chase.

In the ensuing kilometres, the trio bridged a minute’s gap up to the Alpecin pairing to make it a lead quintet with 109km remaining.

Less than a minute behind them, teams including Unibet Rose Rockets, Soudal-QuickStep and Lidl-Trek led the peloton. Planckaert joined them before the top of the climb, the Dutchman dropping back from the break, having realised that the move had next to no chance at any success.

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Unsurprisingly, Bais made a move to protect his teammate Diego Pablo Sevilla’s maglia azzurra. He jumped clear at the top of the climb to grab three points as Tarozzi – 30 points down on Sevilla with 12 of his own – added another two to his total in fourth place in the competition.

The remaining four breakaway riders continued after the climb, though their lead didn’t grow much beyond 40 seconds. They retained that advantage at the day’s intermediate sprint at Brusciano. There, Tarozzi led the way ahead of Bais to extend his lead in the intermediate sprint classification with 48 points to Sevilla’s 28.

Tarozzi wouldn’t last out front to extend his lead in the Red Bull Kilometre competition, though. Instead, the break was brought back early and reabsorbed by the peloton with 37km to run.

From there, the sprinters’ teams took over, and Lidl, QuickStep, and Unibet led the race into the final 30km. A small skirmish broke out at the Red Bull Kilometre sprint, with Filippo Magli (Bardiani CSF-7 Saber) beating Ludovico Crescioli (Polti-VisitMalta) and Lennert Van Eetvelt (Lotto-Intermarché) to the line.

A brief foray off the front by Alec Segaert (Bahrain Victorious) followed, though things were all together again for the closing 20km. It was full speed to Naples thereafter, with a host of sprint trains taking to the front of the peloton for the final run-in.

All riders made it safely to the 5km mark, where the ‘3km rule’ to protect GC times comes into effect on Giro d’Italia sprint stages.

Ivan Garcia pushes teammate Orluis Aular to the finish (Image credit: Getty Images)

Unibet Rose Rockets took control at the front as the race sped into Naples, the Dutch team lined up with four riders ahead of Groenewegen. The Milan and Magnier trains at Lidl-Trek and Soudal-QuickStep moved up at 3km to go.

Unibet took three riders into the final kilometre, though even with their prime position, little could have prepared them for what would happen next as both Groenewegen and his leadout man, Elmar Reinders, slid out while trying to navigate the final bend.

Behind them, a host of other riders did the same, with the carnage blocking much of the peloton from contesting the stage victory. Ballerini and Stuyven, riding on the inside line just behind the Unibet duo, were the only two who avoided that fate, the pair taking advantage of the mass crash to race clear and duke it out for the win.