Nacer Bouhanni wins final sprint in a crash marred stage 6

Bouhanni out-sprints Van Poppel and Elia Viviani on the line. Big crash and strong winds causes splits and some significant time gaps

The win had come from the break for the past two days, and so the peloton would be reluctant to let the escapees take a third stage. From the start, a watchful eye was kept on the attacks, making sure no-one was going to threaten the GC standings, as well as keeping the size of the breakaway small.

Three riders established the breakaway, none other than Richie Porte, Jorge Cubero Galvez and Luis Angel Maté Mardones 

The trio was allowed to go up the road, their attack coming from the drop of the flag, and with the pace in the peloton being fairly slow, they managed to build an advantage that topped out at four minutes before being brought in to a more manageable lead a little above two minutes.

After some hard days in the medium mountains, finally the fast men had cause for celebration – the final 20km being almost pan flat meant they would have the chance to push the pace and go for the win. With the break of the day never really challenging, once the catch was made with 30km to go.

As pace picked up in the last 25 kms,  some street funiture caused a big crash that saw several riders hit the deck and more get delayed.

The strong side winds saw EF Drapac come to the front of the bunch and crank up the pace, causing even more splits and a desperate attempt for riders caught out behind, to get back into contention.

The finale involved around 10 sprinters including Simone Consonni (Ita) UAE Team Emirates, Matteo Trentin (Ita) Mitchelton-Scott, Ivan Garcia (Spa) Bahrain-Merida, Omar Fraile (Spa) Astana Pro Team, Miguel Angel Lopez (Col) Astana Pro Team  and World Champion Peter Sagan (Svk) Bora-Hansgrohe who came across the line in 9th place.

The stage was marred even further, as the strong winds caught barriers after the finish line, that contributed to another bad crash.

One of favorites caught out with 25 kms to was Frenchman Thibaut Pinot who lost 1m 45s. Wico Kelderman who both punctured and broke a wheel and lost significant time too.

Kelderman dropped to 17th on GC, 2m 50s behind race leader Molard, while Pinot is now 3m 8m behind Molard.

Rudy Mollard finished safely in the bunch and retained the race lead.

Bouhanni said after the finish "It was a really hard and fast finale. I really wanted to win today after what happened yesterday. I was really annoyed with the wrong race radio information, I know how to win when I have the legs, so I went from train to train and wheel to wheel."

VIDEO: GCN Stage 6 Highlights and Analysis

2018 La Vuelta Stage 6 Top 10

1 Nacer Bouhanni (Fra) Cofidis, Solutions Credits 3:58:35 
2 Danny van Poppel (Ned) LottoNL-Jumbo   
3 Elia Viviani (Ita) Quick-Step Floors   
4 Simone Consonni (Ita) UAE Team Emirates   
5 Matteo Trentin (Ita) Mitchelton-Scott   
6 Ivan Garcia (Spa) Bahrain-Merida   
7 Omar Fraile (Spa) Astana Pro Team   
8 Miguel Angel Lopez (Col) Astana Pro Team   
9 Peter Sagan (Svk) Bora-Hansgrohe   
10 Michael Mørkøv (Den) Quick-Step Floors

2018 La Vuelta GC after Stage 6 Top 10

1 Rudy Molard (Fra) Groupama-FDJ 22:26:15 
2 Michal Kwiatkowski (Pol) Team Sky 0:00:41 
3 Emanuel Buchmann (Ger) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:00:48 
4 Simon Yates (GBr) Mitchelton-Scott 0:00:51 
5 Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar Team 0:00:53 
6 Ion Izagirre (Spa) Bahrain-Merida 0:01:11 
7 Tony Gallopin (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 0:01:14 
8 Nairo Quintana (Col) Movistar Team   
9 Steven Kruijswijk (Ned) LottoNL-Jumbo 0:01:18 
10 Enric Mas (Spa) Quick-Step Floors 0:01:23