Wurtz Schmidt takes stage six from breakway as Pogacar holds lead
Mads Wurtz Schmidt won the sixth stage of the Tirreno-Adriatico on Monday as Tour de France champion Tadej Pogacar kept his grip on the overall lead at this year's Race of the Two Seas
Wurtz Schmidt took the honours at Lido di Fermo on Italy's Adriatic coast after finishing a sprint at the head of a small group which broke away from the peloton early on in the 169km stage and maintained their lead until the finish line.
The 25-year-old completed the penultimate stage of the race in three hours, 42 minutes and nine seconds to claim his first ever win on the World Tour.
"I am extremely happy, after five years as a pro rider I've finally managed to win in the World Tour," he said after crossing the line.
He charged home ahead of Lotto rider Brent Van Moer, home hope Simone Velasco, Jan Bakelants and Movistar's Nelson Oliveira.
That group crossed the line over a minute ahead of the peloton, which contained the contenders for overall victory.
UAE rider Pogacar maintains his 1min 15sec lead over Wout van Aert in the general classification ahead of Tuesday's final stage, a 10.1km individual time-trial at San Benedetto del Tronto.
Mikel Landa sits three minutes behind Slovenian Pogacar, while 2019 Tour de France winner Egan Bernal is fourth, a further 30 seconds back.
Mads Würtz Schmidt's said after his stage win, "It means the world to me. I haven’t won since I turned pro. It’s a huge relief, it’s what I’ve been fighting for for the last five years," he says. "It was a hard start. First I tired with two other guys but we didn’t get away. Then I got away the second time with this group and we worked really well together. We all had in mind that we had to go hard in the break all the way to break the morale in the peloton, and we succeeded with that. We worked really well together. It was a super hard stage but I felt good when we came into the final."
VIDEO: 2021 Tirreno-Adriatico Stage 6 Highlights
2021 Tirreno-Adriatico Stage 6 Top 10
1 Mads Würtz Schmidt (Den) Israel Start-Up Nation 03:42:09
2 Brent Van Moer (Bel) Lotto Soudal
3 Simone Velasco (Ita) Gazprom-RusVelo
4 Jan Bakelants (Bel) Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert
5 Nelson Oliveira (Por) Movistar Team
6 Emils Liepins (Lat) Trek-Segafredo 00:00:25
7 Tim Merlier (Bel) Alpecin-Fenix 00:01:09
8 Davide Ballerini (Ita) Deceuninck-QuickStep
9 Elia Viviani (Ita) Cofidis
10 Max Kanter (Ger) Team DSM
2021 Tirreno-Adriatico GC after Stage 6
1 Tadej Pogacar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates 26:24:59
2 Wout Van Aert (Bel) Jumbo-Visma 0:01:15
3 Mikel Landa Meana (Spa) Bahrain Victorious 0:03:00
4 Egan Bernal Gomez (Col) Ineos Grenadiers 0:03:30
5 Matteo Fabbro (Ita) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:03:54
6 Tim Wellens (Bel) Lotto Soudal 0:04:30
7 João Almeida (Por) Deceuninck-QuickStep 0:04:42
8 Romain Bardet (Fra) Team DSM 0:05:03
9 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Trek-Segafredo 0:05:54
10 Simon Yates (GBr) Team BikeExchange 0:06:58