HOT ATTILA HOLDS OFF THE PACK
EXCITEMENT and high drama were the again the flavour of the day on stage six of the Giro d’Italia.
On another day of cold and wet conditions, Gino Mader (Bahrain-Victorious) pulled off a miraculous victory, riding clear of his breakaway companions to hold off a charging peloton led by a formidable Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers).
Hungarian Attila Valter (Groupama-FDJ) managed to put in the ride of his life to take the nation’s first leaders maglia rosa.
But the high drama happened on the final climb when the Bike Exchange team car ran into the back of Pieter Serry (Deceuninck-QuickStep), knocking him to the ground.
Fortunately, the 32-yearold Belgian remounted and was able to continue in the race but he was not happy.
The driver, BikeExchange assistant sports director Gene Bates, was subsequently eliminated from the race and lead sports director Matt White, who was in the passenger seat, was fined 2000 Swiss francs.
The challenges for Team BikeExchange did not stop there, with team leader Simon Yates losing a valuable 17 seconds on main contenders Bernal, Remco Evenepoel (Deceuninck-Quick-Step), Dan Martin and Giulio Ciccone.
But Yates was not alone, finishing with Englishman Hugh Carthy (EF EducationNippo), Aleksandr Vlasov (Astana-Premier Tech).
The breakaway took a while to establish, but then eight riders went out to a maximum lead of 5½ minutes.
But Ineos sent out a message to everyone early, letting the peloton know who was in charge.
It set a frenetic pace over the top of the day’s first major climb, led by the indefatigable Filllipo Ganna, who was again amazing.
Approaching the day’s final 16km climb, six riders, including general classification hopefuls Alberto Bettiol (EF Education), Cicconi (Trek) and Romain Bardet (DSM), made a bold move to go clear but again it was Ganna who dragged them back as the road turned skywards.
On the final climb, Swiss rider Mader forged clear and managed to stay clear to take his first world tour victory, erasing the memories of being caught just before the line by Primoz Roglic in the Paris Nice last month and redemption for the BahrainVictorious team, which lost team leader Mikel Landa in a crash the previous day.
Bernal then took second place on the stage, responding to his team’s ruthless pressure with a strong attack with only 1.5km to go, and only Evenepoel, Ciccone and Martin could go with him.
Bernal grabbed six bonus seconds with Martin snaring four seconds for his third placing on the stage.
Valter now leads the race by 11 seconds from Evenepoel, with Bernal third at 16 seconds and Vlasov fourth at 24 seconds.
Louis Vervaeke (AlpecinFenix), who also went with Valter in that stage four breakaway, kept himself in the top-five by placing 22nd on the stage, while Carthy, Caruso, Ciccone, Martin and Yates round out the top-10, and all still within 49 seconds of the race lead.
The new race leader could not contain his excitement after his brilliant ride.
“I could cry, I’m so happy. It’s just incredible for me,” Valter said.
“It’s good to make jokes in the morning but to really believe it is another story.
“I cannot be more surprised and more happy.
“I was planning to do it. I knew I had the good climbing legs this Giro to be better than the first five riders. I just had to hang on to the best climbers and I was really motivated to do it.
“Of course, the motivation gives extra power. I just hope to enjoy this jersey with the team as much as possible.”