Cycling: André Greipel today won the sixth stage of the Giro d'Italia from Montecatini Terme to Castiglione della Pescaia. The German champion prevailed in the mass sprint with absolute confidence against his competitors. On the home stretch there was also a serious fall, which was probably triggered by a spectator again.
It was a relatively calm day today at the Giro d'Italia. After the last five days had been really packed with action and nervousness, today it seemed as if the riders were recovering a bit from the exertions of the previous days. Immediately after the start another quintet drove away from the field: Today it was Marco Bandiera (Androni), Marek Rutkiewicz (CCC Sprandi), Eduard Michael Grosu, Alessandro Malaguti (Nippo-Vini Fantini) and Alan Marangoni (Cannondale-Garmin) who led the race for much of the day. The quintet kept the gap constant between three and four minutes, while the peloton, led by IAM, Trek and Giant-Alpecin, was in no hurry to catch the escapees either.
But 20 kilometers from the finish in Castiglione della Pescaia, the field suddenly picked up the pace, LottoNL-Jumbo and Tinkoff-Saxo set the pace and it took less than 5km for the quintet at the front to be caught up, who, without much of a fight, were the sails drawn. After that, the fights for position slowly started to position the top sprinters such as Elia Viviani (Team Sky), Michael Matthews (Orica-GreenEdge) and André Greipel, who was driving in red. The teamwork at Lotto-Soudal was excellent and André Greipel didn't make the mistake that cost him victory in Genoa. He patiently waited for the right moment and then picked up the pace - none of his pursuers could even begin to keep up with the pace and the 32-year-old drove confidently to victory on the day.
During the bunch sprint there was a heavy fall behind the front 10 drivers. Daniele Colli from Team Nippo-Vini Fantini fell on the left side of the road and broke his arm. The television images suggest that a spectator who reached over the barrier was touched – but official confirmation is still pending. We will keep you up to date. There were no changes in the overall classification today.
Highlights of Stage 6:
Final result stage 6 Giro d'Italia 2015
[easy table th=“0″]1.,André Greipel,GER,Lotto-Soudal,04:19:42
2.,Matteo Pelucchi,ITA,IAM,
3rd,Sacha Modolo,ITA,Lampre Merida,
4.,Manuel Belletti,ITA,Southeast,
5., Giacomo Nizzolo, ITA, Trek,
6.,Alessandro Petacchi,ITA,Southeast,
7th, Elia Viviani, ITA, Team Sky,
8.,Luka Mezgec,SLO,Giant Alpecin,
9.,Nicola Ruffoni,ITA,Bardiani-CSF,
10th, Davide Appollonio, ITA, Androni-Giocattoli,
[/easy table]