Good fight in the beginning of the stage, thanks to the start within a climb and then to Ineos who wanted to add extra team riders to the one in the breakaway which had separated after 5 km. Breakaway, chase and peloton regrouped at the same time, after 30 km perhaps. Right away, 2 guys left again, for what would turn out to be the main breakaway of the day, as, strangely, no one attacked again despite the strong fights that took place previously.
However, there was another phase, where Fortunato🇮🇹 left alone the sleepy peloton, close alone a gap of several minutes (I think) to catch up the breakaway, grabbed the maximum points on top of the 2nd category climb, and then didn’t continue with breakaway but return in the peloton 4 or 5 minutes behind! Peloton in which he was later caught in the mass holiday-on-ice style crash which caused race neutralisation and the cancellation of the arrival points and time gaps.
Pedersen didn’t take part in a sprint that he wasn’t likely to win, since there were no points to grab.
Kooij🇳🇱 got stuck behind a Q36.5 rider and couldn’t sprint. The Q36.5 rider was relegated, despite the impression I got when I watched the replay, where it looked to me more like Kooij making the wrong choice of trying to pass between the Q36.5 rider and the fence where there was actually no room to pass, while everyone else, including other riders that were in the same original position, chose the open side to go around the slower Q36.5.
Fretin🇧🇪 came second to Groves🇦🇺. If I understood correctly, UCI points were still attributed, so that’s good for Cofidis.
Stage 6 : Potenza – Naples, 227 km (Thursday 15, dep. 11:30-11:50, arr. 17:00-17:30)
Long stage for sprinters.
Stage with light difficulties, 50 points to the winner.
The 3 km rule applies for falls/incidents in the finish.
Only splits larger or equal to 3 seconds are counted.
Delays: 9% if ≤ 37 km/h; 10% if ≤ 37 km/h; 11% otherwise).
Good fight in the beginning of the stage, thanks to the start within a climb and then to Ineos who wanted to add extra team riders to the one in the breakaway which had separated after 5 km. Breakaway, chase and peloton regrouped at the same time, after 30 km perhaps. Right away, 2 guys left again, for what would turn out to be the main breakaway of the day, as, strangely, no one attacked again despite the strong fights that took place previously.
However, there was another phase, where Fortunato🇮🇹 left alone the sleepy peloton, close alone a gap of several minutes (I think) to catch up the breakaway, grabbed the maximum points on top of the 2nd category climb, and then didn’t continue with breakaway but return in the peloton 4 or 5 minutes behind! Peloton in which he was later caught in the mass holiday-on-ice style crash which caused race neutralisation and the cancellation of the arrival points and time gaps.
Pedersen didn’t take part in a sprint that he wasn’t likely to win, since there were no points to grab.
Kooij🇳🇱 got stuck behind a Q36.5 rider and couldn’t sprint. The Q36.5 rider was relegated, despite the impression I got when I watched the replay, where it looked to me more like Kooij making the wrong choice of trying to pass between the Q36.5 rider and the fence where there was actually no room to pass, while everyone else, including other riders that were in the same original position, chose the open side to go around the slower Q36.5.
Fretin🇧🇪 came second to Groves🇦🇺. If I understood correctly, UCI points were still attributed, so that’s good for Cofidis.