For much of stage six of the Giro d’Italia, the peloton skirted around Mount Vesuvius, its cloud-capped summit overshadowing the race like a physical reminder of the mountains awaiting the riders on Friday.
As the race avoided that particular mountain – instead summiting two smaller climbs and navigating the twisting, undulating roads along the Amalfi Coast – the breakaway fought the sprint teams for the stage victory and lost out in the final 200 metres as Mads Pedersen eventually took the win.
But the overall race simmered underneath the race for the stage win, as Geraint Thomas and Primož Roglič both suffered mechanicals in the closing kilometres, rounding a stressful opening week for the GC favourites, almost all of whom have been affected by crashes.
A battered and bruised peloton lined up at the start in Napoli, after Wednesday’s stage was marred by a series of crashes on wet roads. Miraculously, somehow, there were no overnight abandons as a result of those incidents but the effects of crashes can linger for days, even after avoiding serious injury.
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A different sort of drama animated the last kilometres today. First, Roglič suffered a mechanical with 15 kilometres remaining on the bumpy roads on the outskirts of Napoli, and television cameras picked out a hole in his lycra shorts, suggesting that he had crashed again at some point in the day. Nonetheless, he re-joined the back of the peloton shortly afterwards, having been piloted by his teammates through the convoy.
Almost as soon as Roglič had recouped his losses, Thomas suffered a mechanical and embarked on an even more frantic chase, weaving through riders who had begun dropping out the back of the peloton as the pace accelerated, but he too managed to avoid losing time.
Geraint Thomas suffered a poorly timed mechanical on stage six, but made it back to the peloton safely (Zac Williams/SWPix)
Already in this opening week, little hints have been dropped along the roadside, indicating each GC favourite’s form and chances of winning the maglia rosa.
With all the clarity that comes after one stage of a Grand Tour, the race seemed as good as settled after the opening day’s time trial when Remco Evenepoel obliterated all the competition to take the maglia rosa at the first opportunity, gaining time and eroding his rivals’ morale.
Three weeks is a long time in bike racing, the…