The 6th stage of the Tour of Italy run between Viareggio and Rapolano Terme saw the victory of Pelayo Sanchez. The Spaniard won in the sprint ahead of Julian Alaphilippe and Lucas Plapp, his breakaway companions. Arriving in the peloton, Tadej Pogacar had no difficulty retaining his pink jersey.
Sanchez (Movistar), whose first victory on a Grand Tour, beat Alaphilippe (Soudal Quick-Step) who very quickly showed that he had ticked off this stage.
Around 100 kilometers from the finish, the Frenchman attacked for the first time, on the Volterra climb, listed 4th category. But we had to wait another 20 kilometers to finally see a breakaway form and take more than a minute from the peloton.
The peloton finished 29 seconds behind
Made up of 7 runners, including Sanchez, it was more than 3 minutes ahead of the pink jersey group 50 kilometers from the goal. This gap coincided with the moment when the breakaways entered the first portion of the dirt roads of Tuscany (where the classic “Strade Bianche” takes place).
But the leading group, which saw the peloton come back to 1’30 40 km from the finish, ended up exploding, with only 3 riders remaining in the lead: Sanchez, Alaphilippe and the Australian Plapp (Jayco AlUla) .
The leading trio, who maintained a gap of more than a minute with the peloton until 6 km from the line, had to work hard in the final, the peloton falling back to 20 seconds at 3 km. The three men ended up 29 seconds ahead of the main group.
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