The crash occurred with about 72km left to ride in the 227km course from Potenza to Naples and took down several top riders, including Richard Carapaz (EF Education–EasyPost) and 2022 Giro winner Jai Hindley (Red Bull–BORA–Hansgrohe). Hindley, who is race favorite Primož Roglič’s main domestique in the mountains, had to abandon the race along with several other riders, which is a setback for the Red Bull leader.
As a result of the crash and ensuing chaos, organizers first reduced the speed of the race to 20km/h to give riders caught up in the crash the chance to rejoin the peloton. Then they stopped the race completely with about 55km left to ride, consulted the riders and finally decided that no points or bonus seconds would be awarded at the last intermediate sprint and at the finish and that time differences at the finish line would not count towards the GC. The race was then restarted, with the two-man breakaway having its 47-second advantage over the peloton restored.
As the streets of Naples are treacherous even in sunshine, all the GC riders then slowed down and let the sprinters race ahead for the win. All except for Pedersen, who decided not to risk the Naples cobblestones and did not ride for his fourth victory in six stages, which would have been a first since 1933.
But the chaos was not over, not by a long shot. With 3km left to race, as the “sprinters’ peloton” was barreling down Naples’ streets towards the finish line, two protestors ran onto the road, which slowed down the breakaway and just missed causing another disaster. According to Taco van der Hoorn (Intermarché-Wanty), one of the two riders in the breakaway, “It did have an impact. I don’t know if we would have made it otherwise, I don’t think so. But it is a shame that it has to end like this.” Watch that incident here.
But that wasn’t the end of the chaos either. With about 700 meters to go, Visma–Lease a Bike’s Wout van Aert, who is having a horrendous Giro, was leading the team’s sprinter Olav Kooij towards the front of the peloton in preparation for the bunch sprint. But instead he suddenly took off on his own after Alpecin-Deceuninck’s Jensen Plowright, who had taken a 50-meter lead. Because it was too far for a sprint, Kooij did not follow, preferring to wait until the sprint began in earnest.
It was kicked off by Alpecin-Deceuninck’s lead-out train in support of Kaden Groves. Kooij followed along the barrier and looked to have a good chance of catching the Australian when he was impeded, not once but twice, the second time with an elbow thrust, by Matteo Moschetti (Q36.5). The upshot was that Groves won the stage, Kooij finished tenth and Moschetti was relegated to last.
This wasn’t a Grand Tour stage; it was a disaster movie, with more unexpected twists and turns than the streets of Naples. At the end, Pedersen still led the GC by 17 seconds over Roglič, with his Lidl-Trek teammate and primary lead-out rider Mathias Vacek in third, at 24 seconds. And he also led the points classification by 141 points to 55 for Kooij.
The first week of this Giro definitely belonged to Pedersen, who also won Wednesday’s stage 5, for his third victory in the race. But Vacek also owned a fair share of the week, especially after his leader’s stage 5 victory. What the 22-year-old Czech did in the finale of that stage was a masterpiece of gamesmanship and lead-out riding.
Vacek took control of the peloton with about 4km left to ride, about halfway up the last and steepest (average gradient of 8.6%) of several uncategorized climbs in the last 8km of the stage. When Roglič took off on a half-hearted breakaway, it was Vacek who took up the chase and collared the Slovenian. And when Pedersen was dropped on that final climb with 2km left to race, Vacek controlled the pace of the peloton, allowing his leader to join him at the front. Finally, when the sprint kicked off, Vacek took his leader to the perfect spot from which to launch his winning sprint, just edging out Kooij, who can’t seem to catch a break.
On Friday’s stage 7, the attention finally turns to the GC riders. The 168km course from Castel di Sangro to Tagliacozzo includes three tough categorized climbs and a summit finish on the Category 1 climb to Tagliocozzo (11.9km @ 5.6%, with ramps of up to 10.3%).
