Arnaud Démare (Groupama-FDJ) went two for two at the Giro d'Italia with another victory, this time snatching the stage 6 win from Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal) with a bike throw in a photo finish on Thursday. From the skirmish of sprinters, Mark Cavendish (QuickStep-AlphaVinyl) faded from contention and took third.
The Groupama-FDJ sprinter now has seven career victories at the Giro and passed Jacques Anqetil and Bernard Hinault as the French rider with the most individual stage wins at the Italian Grand Tour. Démare had tied the duo just the day before with the stage 5 victory, which was his first win of the season.
It was a long, slow day of 192 kilometres up the Tyrrhenian coast in Calabria for the peloton, as they let one rider escape after the first 23km. Eolo-Kometa's Diego Rosa went alone until 28.5km to go mark, when Lotto Soudal and QuickStep-AlphaVinyl swept him up on their march to set up the sprint finish.
Juan Pedro López (Trek-Segafredo) remained in the maglia rosa with a 38-second advantage over Lennard Kämna (Bora-Hansgrohe), who still holds a healthy mountain classification lead. Démare, meanwhile, extended his points jersey total with the stage win.
Watch the highlights of the opening stage above.
