Chaves wins stage as teammate Yates grabs the Pink Jersey on Mount Etna
The Mitchelson-Scott pair blew the race apart on the upper slopes of the first big mountain finish atop Mount Etna
The first summit finish in the 2018 Giro d´Italia awaited the peloton today and took the riders over 169km from Caltanissetta to Mount Etna, the volcano which is still active. Today´s stage had an undulating profile and featured an endless series of bends over the first 120km.
It was a fierce fight for the breakaway but after 50km into today´s race, 27 riders established the breakaway of the day and built a gap of more than three minutes.
The final climb up to the mountain finish started in the city of Ragalna and covered 15km with a max gradient of 16%, before the race headed into the last kilometre with gradients around 6%.
With 32km to go, the breakaway had a two-minute gap as the peloton increased the pace to reel them back in.
Mitchelton-Scott ruled the day, taking a 1-2 finish. Esteban Chaves won the stage, and teammate Simon Yates moved into the maglia rosa. Chaves and Yates attacked successfully on the climb to open a significant gap over the G.C. favorites, moving 26 seconds ahead of the peloton.
Former race leader Rohan Dennis of the BMC Racing Team cracked on the lattre part of the climb and fell to 6th place in the overall standings, 53 seconds back.
Speaking seconds after the stage finish, the stage winner Esteban Chaves said: “It’s unbelievable. I needed this for my comeback to the Giro after one year of absence. It was a really hard stage here at the end. I firstly thank Jack Haig for pulling so much in the breakaway. This 1-2 with Yates is like a dream.”
The race leader Simon Yates said: “Our tactic today isn’t what our sport director told us to do this morning. It was a crazy day with a lot of attacks going at the beginning. As Esteban was at the front with a pretty big group, it made me sit back. I could save some energy. It worked out perfectly. I felt good so I took my chance to ride across. Esteban had been out all day so he deserved the win. I knew I was taking the Maglia Rosa, which pleases me a lot.”
VIDEO: Stage 6 to Mount Etna Highlights
2018 Giro d'Italia Stage 6 Top 10
Esteban Chaves (Mitchelton-Scott)
Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) s.t.
Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) at 26″
George Bennett (LottoNL-Jumbo) s.t.
Domenico Pozzovivo (Bahrain-Merida) s.t.
Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana) s.t.
Richard Carapaz (Movistar) s.t.
Tom Dumoulin (Team Sunweb) s.t.
Fabio Aru (Team UAE) s.t.
Chris Froome (Team Sky) s.t.
General Classification After Stage 6
Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) 22h 46′ 03″
Tom Dumoulin (Team Sunweb) at 16″
Esteban Chaves (Mitchelton-Scott) at 26″
Domenico Pozzovivo (Bahrain-Merida) at 43″
Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) at 45″
Rohan Dennis (BMC Racing Team) at 53″
Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana) at 1′ 03″
Chris Froome (Team Sky) at 1’10”
George Bennett (LottoNL-Jumbo) at 1’11”
Fabio Aru (Team UAE) at 1’12”