Thursday’s Giro d’Italia stage into Napoli ended like a couple of the Bulgarian stages, with crash chaos affecting the day’s outcome. Out of the dust, Davide Ballerini and Jasper Stuyven fought it out for the win, with the Italian beating the Belgian. Nickolas Zukowsky was top Canadian at 18th.
Preliminaries
Stage 5 was so bonkers that it put the runner-up Afonso Eulálio in pink by a nearly 3:00 margin over winner Igor Arrieta, who would wear Eulálio’s white young rider’s jersey on Thursday. Jonas Vingegaard, Giulio Pellizzari and 2022 champion Jai Hindley were over six minutes back.
The Course
After the madcap fifth stage, Thursday’s 141-km route suggested a more predictable, straight-forward bunch sprint in Napoli. The Red Bull Kilometre was 24 km from the finish line.
Lennert van Eetvelt put in an almost ironic, half-hearted attack soon after the start. An early crash in the peloton put one of the day’s favourites, Jonathan Milan, on the ground. Two Alpecin-Premier Tech riders charged up the road before receiving three Italian ProTeam reinforcements. Matthia Bais was first over the day’s only categorized climb to little consequence in the KOM competition. One hundred kilometres to the northwest remained and the breakaway only had 30 seconds on the peloton.
The break was reeled in with 37 km to race. The peloton galloped towards Napoli, the colour blocks forming. Unibet Rose Rockets, Lidl-Trek and Decathlon-CMA-CGA were all prominent at the front. Unibet led under the red kite. There was a crash at the front on the cobbled final turn, blocking most of the riders.
Ballerini and Jasper Stuyven got through and they would tussle for the win, with the XDS-Astana rider prevailing. Stalled by the crash, Paul Magnier put his chain back on and hustled to take third.
Friday is a mountains marathon of 244 km with the 13.6-km, 8.4-percent Apennine climb Blockhaus taking on the role of first summit finish of the 109th edition.
2026 Giro d’Italia, Stage 6
1) Davide Ballerini (Italy/XDS-Astana) 3:19:30
2) Jasper Stuyven (Belgium/Soudal-Quick Step) s.t.
3) Paul Magnier (France/Soudal-Quick Step) s.t.
18) Nickolas Zukowsky (Canada/Pinarello-Q36.5) s.t.
83) Derek Gee-West (Canada/Lidl-Trek) s.t.
2026 Giro d’Italia GC
1) Afonso Eulálio (Portugal/Bahrain-Victorious)…
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