Giro d'Italia report: Greipel wins on stage 6

Andrei Greipel and his Lotto-Soudal team dominated the sprint finish in Castiglione della Pescaia on stage 6 of the Giro d’Italia, with the German national champion getting a perfect lead out and then finishing off the work of his teammates.

Greipel opened up the sprint on the long finishing straight and had the speed and power to hold off a late charge from Matteo Pelucchi (IAM Cycling) and Sacha Modolo (Lampre-Merida).

Race leader Alberto Contador was protected by his Tinkoff-Saxo teammates throughout the stage but was caught up in the high-speed crash in sight of the finish line that saw several riders go down.

The crash happened inside the final two hundred metres, with Daniele Colli (Nippo - Vini Fantini) apparently hitting a spectator leaning out into the road with a camera and a zoom lens. Colli landed on his shoulder, with his arm twisted, causing other riders to crash across the road. He was unable to finish the stage and was taken to hospital by ambulance.

Contador was on the other side of the road but went over his front wheel and landed on his left hip. He seemed to hurt his shoulder as his arm hit the road. He got up to finish the stage and was given the same time as Greipel and so kept the race lead. However he was unable to pull on the pink jersey on the podium and opted to be treated by his team doctor instead of speaking to Italian television. He quickly left the finish area instead of attending the race leader’s press conference.

Contador leads Fabio Aru (Astana) by two seconds in the general classification, with Richie Porte (Team Sky) third overall at 20 seconds.

Andre Greipel proudly pointed to his names of his sponsors on the podium. He also took the red points jersey thanks to his stage victory.

“This is what we’re here for: to win a stage,” he said. “I’ve got to thank the team, they gave me an awesome lead out. Greg Henderson did a long, long pull to lead me out. We can be happy with this win today.”

“I never look at the race manual or think ahead to how many sprints I might be able to contest, I prefer to take the Giro day by day. I made a mistake in the Genoa sprint but me and the team are very happy today with this win.”

Greipel did not see the crash but accepted that risks are part of sprinting.

“I don’t know what happened in the crash, it was behind me. Watching it on television, it doesn’t look so good. Crashing is part of racing and part of our job. It looks like a spectator caused it which is not good.”

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How it happened

The 183km stage started under the sun, with the peloton a little tired after three intense days of racing. Most of the riders were happy to let the early break of the stage form and Marek Rutkiewicz (CCC Sprandi) and Eduard Grosu (Nippo-Vini Fantini) were the first to attack after just two kilometres. They were joined by Marco Bandiera (Androni Giocattoli), Alessandro Malaguti (Nippo-Vini-Fantini and Alan Marangoni (Cannondale-Garmin) after 20km and the peloton let them go.

Their gap grew gradually on the flat roads south of Pisa, with the five opening a lead of five minutes close to the Piaggio Vespa factory in Pontedera.

The Tinkoff-Saxo team had been hoping that someone in the break would be able to take Contador’s pink jersey but the sprinters’ teams kept the break under control and the gap to around five minutes.

The break tried their hardest to hold their gap, working smoothly together to Volterra and the hills near Pomerance and Larderello but the peloton never let them go too far clear. The Lotto Soudal, IAM Cycling, Trek Factory Racing and Giant-Alpecin teams did much of the hard work, riding for Greipel, Pelucchi, Nizzolo and Mezgec.

After over 120km in the saddle, Bandiera won the final sprint of the day with 34km to go but the gap was down to three minutes, with the news of strong head and side winds making the peloton nervous. The five breakaways suffered in the breeze blowing rom the south and their lead melted quickly as the peloton lined out in pursuit. The flat roads near Grosseto made it easy for the peloton to catch the break and the race return to ‘gruppo compatto’ –all together, with 14km to go.

The Astana, Tinkoff-Saxo and Team Sky squads also hit the front to protect their team leaders at this point, with several trains of riders filling the country roads.

The Giant-Alpecin team moved to the front with their lead out train with four kilometres to go but they were quickly past by Lotto Soudal and Lampre-Merida as the overall contenders slipped back down the peloton knowing they were inside the three kilometre to go point and so would not lose time in the event of a crash.

Lotto Soudal lead the peloton with Lars Bak and other teammates doing long turns for Greipel entering Castiglione della Pescaia. Greg Henderson led out Greipel on the long finishing straight as the other sprinters fought for his wheel. The sprint was hectic, with the crash scattering riders across the road behind the sprinters. But Greipel was ahead of the chaos, hit out early and won with his arms in the air.

It was his first stage victory at the Giro since he won in Brescia back in 2010. He will have a chance of further success at the end of Friday’s seventh stage from Grosseto to Fiuggi. At 264km, it is the longest stage of this year’s Giro d’Italia. The finish rises into the centre of the spa town.