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Duchesne’s Hungarian teammate Attila Valter grabs pink jersey on first 2021 Giro summit finish

Bahrain-Victorious wins stage the day after losing team leader Landa

Photo by: Sirotti
May 13, 2021
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The day after Bahrain-Victorious lost its GC leader Mikel Landa to a bad crash, the team won Thursday’s sixth stage of the Giro d’Italia on a summit finish, Swiss rider Gino Mäder hanging on from the breakaway. Mäder also claimed the mountains jersey. Antoine Duchesne’s Hungarian Groupama-FDJ teammate Attila Valter, wearing the white best young rider kit, nabbed the pink jersey from Alessandro De Marchi. Valter leads Remco Evenepoel by 11-seconds at the top of the table.

The Course

It was the first true summit finish, a 9.5 km, 5.6 percent Cat. 2 with the last 5 km at 7.6 percent. In the middle of the 160 km route there were two climbs in quick succession before a 43 km descent to the foot of the Colle San Marco ascent to San Giacomo. There was more rain for the riders.

Wednesday’s Unexpectedly Consequential Stage 5

Wednesday’s seemingly straightforward appearance of a flat stage with two doomed breakaway duos and a Caleb Ewan bunch sprint victory was belied by its effect on the GC race. Three late crashes resulted in Landa—who looked sharp on Tuesday—leaving the race in an ambulance with a broken collarbone and ribs, while Egan Bernal’s main climbing lieutenant/Ineos’s Plan B Pavel Sivakov received injuries that didn’t allow him to start on Thursday. Even Tuesday’s winner Joe Dombrowski took a hit in the carnage and had to drop out because of a concussion.

Just after the weather turned foul, a small breakaway received two reinforcements including Bauke Mollema. The fugitives started the day’s first categorized climb, Cat. 2 Forca di Gualdo, with a 5:00 gap over the drenched, Israel Start-up Nation-led peloton. Geoffrey Bouchard (France/AG2R-Citroën) was first over Forca di Gualdo and Matej Mohorič (Slovenia/Bahrain-Victorious) led over the top of nearby Cat 3 Forca di Presta.

On the descent between the Forca climbs, Ineos cranked up the pressure in the wind, dropping De Marchi and several others.

By the top of Forca di Presta, before the 43 km descent, the fugitives’ gap over the favourites group was down to 2:30. The breakaway split on the drop and three riders–Giulio Ciccone, Romain Bardet and Alberto Bettiol–attacked from the GC group.

Colle San Marco

The Ciccone-Bardet move was hampered by Trek-Segafredo orders for Ciccone to sit in, as teammate Mollema was still 2:40 up the road when the final climb began. The jackets and vests were removed, and the weather started to cooperate.

A frightful incident occurred at the back of the favourites group when Pieter Serry was hit from behind by a Bike-Exchange car engaged in conversation with a race official car.

Ineos continued on at pointy end of the field. Up front Mollema, Mäder and Dario Cataldo (Italy/Movistar) held a 2:00 lead with 9 km to climb.

The steeper final 5 km would elicit an attack; Ineos received company up front, with João Almeida and Fausto Masnada pulling for Evenepoel. Would the fugitive trio survive? It still had a 1:30 gap.

With 3.5 km to go Mäder attacked his breakmates. Dani Martinez, Ineos’ final support rider for Egan Bernal, also made a move from the peloton.

Bernal pushed past his teammate. Mäder’s gap was slim at the red kite but he held tough by 12 seconds for the famous, timely victory. Bernal, Dan Martin, Evenepoel and Ciccone forced a small gap to their rivals, putting 17 seconds into Hugh Carthy, Simon Yates, Valter and Vlasov and slightly less into Marc Soler and Hugh Carthy.

2021 Giro d’Italia Stage 6
1) Gino Mäder (Switzerland/Bahrain-Victorious) 4:17:52
2) Egan Bernal (Colombia/Ineos) +0:12
3) Dan Martin (Ireland/Israel Start-up Nation) s.t.

2021 Giro d’Italia GC
1) Attila Valter (Hungary/Groupama-FDJ) 22:17:06
2) Remco Evenepoel (Belgium/Deceuninck-Quick Step) +0:11
3) Egan Bernal (Colombia/Ineos) +0:16