2022 season, Giro d'Italia, Grand Tours, Stage races

Giro d’Italia 2022 : Stage 6 – Demare doubles up, Lopez stays in pink

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Cycling fans, one and all, stand up and give yourself a jolly good pat on the back for making it through to the end of Stage 6 of this year’s Giro D’Italia. A long, painful, uneventful affair ultimately saw Arnaud Demare double up the stage wins, all the while tightening his grip on the maglia ciclamino. In a horribly frantic final kilometre, in which frankly it was a miracle there were no crashes, the best of the best sprinters went to battle for the day’s honours. Lotto Soudal’s Caleb Ewan lost out to Demare by truly the finest of margins (see our 50-slide powerpoint presentation on the camera angles being wrong later), and Mark Cavendish (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl) rounded out the podium with his first ever(!) third place finish at the Italian Grand Tour. No change in the jerseys or the GC.

Nothing Happened

Non è successo niente.

No pasó nada.

Rien ne s’est passé.

I’m not sure how or why, but the Giro lucky-dip has not been kind to me on stage write ups. Similar to Stage 5, Stage 6 was destined for a sprint with a climb to negotiate. However, unlike Stage 5, the Aeroporto L Razza’s shallow gradients would prove of little interest to teams who might attempt to shake off any sprinters as they did the day prior. And so, with no (serious – Bauke Mollema!) breakaway attempts either, the bunch remained.

Together.

United as one.

For far too long.

Diego Rosa, we don’t deserve you!

Finally, after 30km of, well, nothing, our hero, our mate, Diego Rosa (Eolo-Kometa) went solo. After experiencing that recent Tour de France stage when no break ever formed, fans (and team staff) were none too ready to experience it again. So, truly, from the bottom of our hearts, Diego, thank you for doing *something*.

Our Diego spent the next 140ish kilometres on his own.

In complete solitude.

The Photo Finish

Nothing happened. UNTIL … the peloton passed under the flamme rouge. We collectively leaned forward in our seats in anticipation of the battle of the leadout trains and their rocket-men.

It was Cavendish with his supreme Quick-Step train, led by best-in-the-business Michael Morkov, versus the rusty-looking Caleb Ewan who never quite finds himself in the right spot, versus Grand Tour debutante Biniam Girmay who is *SO* close to that first win, versus Fernando Gaviria of UAE, versus yesterday’s winner Arnaud Demare (FDJ). The sprint field was stacked and the pace in the closing kilometres was blistering.

The Manx Missile opened the sprint early after being delivered to the front by Morkov, but Ewan was on his wheel quicker than a quick thing to close him down. But just when you thought the Australian was bagging his first Giro win of the year, Demare put on a dominant display of sheer pace and power to come around both of them to take the win by a margin that could barely even be made out on the photo finish!

Robbie McEwen – one of the very best things about this year’s Giro.

 

Demare, who took four stage victories and the maglia ciclamino at the 2020 Giro, looks back to his best. Back-to-back stage wins and an increased lead in the points jersey competition – it’s no wonder he’s back with a big grin.

Elsewhere…

With all eyes focussed on the very front of the race, at 50m to go the beady-eyed caught the most bizarre and how-did-they-not-crash moment.

As two DSM riders moved up to position themselves for the sprint, Gaviria, unhappy with the move, tried to create a gap where there wasn’t one – YIKES. Thank goodness all remained upright and unscathed.

Unscathed but Gaviria relegated.

Biniam Girmay remains in the hunt for a stage win, getting boxed-in at the very final moments, possibly as a repercussion of not having a massively strong team around him, but BOY is he getting close. We’re still rooting for you, Bini!

He showed what he can do in the intermediate sprint versus Demare…

Finding the beauty in it all

Cycling fans truly are a rare breed. 190km of no entertainment, but still people are able to find the beauty and the fun in the sport…

Wouldn’t want to do this crazy ride with anyone else. But maybe, just a little bit more bike racing tomorrow?

Thoughts and Prayers

[I believe you’re scheduled for that rewrite, Issie – ed]

All the results

Stage results 

1 Arnaud Demare (Groupama-FDJ) 5:02:33

2 Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal) same time

3 Mark Cavendish (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl) ST

4 Biniam Girmay (Intermarche-Wanty-Gobert) ST

5 Giacomo Nizzolo (Israel-Premier Tech) ST

GC Top 10 

1 Juan Pedro Lopez (Trek-Segafredo) 23:23:36

2 Lennard Kamna (BORA-hansgrohe) +0:38

3 Rein Taaramae (Intermarche-Wanty-Gobert) +0:58

4 Simon PHILIP Yates (BikeExchange-Jayco) +1:42

5 Mauri Vansevenant (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl) +1:47

6 Wilco Kelderman (BORA-hansgrohe) +1:55

7 Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) +1:58

8 Pello Bilbao (Bahrain Victorious) +2:00

9 Richie Porte (Ineos Grenadiers) +2:04

10 Romain Bardet (Team DSM) +2:06

All the jerseys

Leader’s jersey : Juan Pedro Lopez (Trek-Segafredo)

Points jersey : Arnaud Demare (Groupama-FDJ)

King of the Mountains: Lennard Kämna (Bora-hansgrohe)

Best young rider: Juan Pedro Lopez (Trek-Segafredo)

Team : BORA-hansgrohe 

For full race results, go to CyclingNews

Official Giro d’Italia website is here

 

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