2018 Giro d’Italia: Stage 6 News, Notes and Quotes

Stage 6 of the 2018 Giro d’Italia was hot as lava, with volcanic headlines erupting everywhere!

The day truly belonged to Mitchelton-SCOTT’s Esteban Chaves and Simon Yates as they conquered Mt. Etna to finish first and second on the stage six and as Yates moved into the race lead.

The duo crossed the line of the race’s first summit finish together, with Yates honoring Chaves the stage victory, 26 seconds ahead of their nearest rival. The performance sees Yates take the overall lead by 16 seconds to Tom Dumoulin (Team Sunweb). Chaves moved into third overall at 23 seconds.

Slipping into the break

After countless unsuccessful fights to form the breakaway in the first hour of racing, Chaves and Australian Jack Haig slipped into the eventual 28-man breakaway on a descent.

The group worked well together, with Haig shouldering a heavy load to support the ambitions of Mitchelton-SCOTT.

At its biggest their advantage extended to a little over three-minutes before Astana joined BMC in the chase efforts behind.

What was once a large group dwindled down as the road started to climb towards Etna. By 10km to go just nine riders remained, including Chaves. With the joint chase behind, their advantage was under a minute.

At the steepest part of the final climb, with 5.5km to go, Chaves attacked and committed solo. Yates was among the strongest in the chasing group of favorites and seized the opportunity to accelerate ahead of his rivals with 1.5km to go.

The Britain shortly joined Chaves at the head of the race, took up the pace effort and extended the Mitchelton-SCOTT duo’s advantage.

With Yates honouring him the victory, Chaves crossed the line slightly ahead – both riders saluting a dream day out.

“It’s unbelievable, this is the best start for the Giro d’Italia,” said Chaves. “I knew we had to be up front, we had a very hard stage to Etna. I made the break with Jack and I want to say thank you to him – he pulled so much in the breakaway.

“In the finale I rode with Simon and I was first, and he claimed the maglia rosa. How unbelievable is that? I think also I’m in the king of the mountains jersey – it’s like a dream. Now we go to the mainland, we’re super excited, and we will keep on dreaming.”

“The start was a little crazy there with a lot of attacks going. I don’t know how, but Esteban was in the front there with a really big group,” Yates added. “That meant we could sit back and I didn’t really need to do anything, so I could sit in the wheels and save some energy because of course we had Esteban in the lead.

“In the end it worked out perfectly, I felt really good – I’m not really sure how it happened, but I looked across the road and everybody was looking at each other and there was a little bit of a gap. I took a chance and I got across. It’s worked out really good.”

Rohan Dennis Limits Loss

Rohan Dennis fought until the end to limit his time loss in the finale.

Dennis started the day, his fourth in the Maglia Rosa, with a one second advantage over Tom Dumoulin (Team Sunweb) and 17 seconds on Simon Yates (Mitchelton-SCOTT), but with just one minute separating multiple contenders, it was a battle from the starting gun.

Dennis crossed the line 1’04” behind Chaves to move into sixth place on the General Classification, 53 seconds behind Yates.

“It was a bit crazy at the start. There was no control,” Dennis commented after the stage. “We tried our best to set a tempo but no one really wanted to respect that. We were all in the front but they all wanted to be in the breakaway today. We decided to sit back and let it work itself out and unfortunately 28 guys went up the road but you win some, you lose some. The guys then did an awesome job to keep it within three minutes and then we got some help from other teams.

“Thinking about the Etna climb, I’ve still got some work to do obviously but I was actually pretty happy with my climb today.  There were points when I was in trouble but I stayed calm and I actually rode back onto the group where the winners came from at the end of the day. I took confidence from the fact that they can go a little bit deeper than me, in terms of spikes in power, but they can’t sustain it. I just need to keep reminding myself of that.

“Nothing changes after today. Obviously, I don’t have the pink jersey but that’s not an issue for me. I knew that was going to happen eventually. I was hoping not today and that I would get a little bit more confidence from the race but there is still time. I am not that far behind the leaders. What I am thinking is that if I can stay somewhat within reach, I can hopefully still perform well and that the time trial will help me out.

“It was amazing to wear the pink jersey. It was something I was hoping for but you never really expect it. Plus it was a massive bonus that it was the third Grand Tour leader’s jersey that I have worn. However, even if it was my first one, it would have been just as special,”  the Australian concluded.

Pozzovivo Moves Into 4th

Domenico Pozzovivo finished 5th on the stage to jump up to 4th place in the overall, 43 seconds behind Yates.

“It was a very difficult day,” Pozzovivo said shortly after the race. “I thought that many of the other teams played good tactics today and that made it really tough. I’m hoping that I’ll be able to maintain this good form throughout the rest of the Giro d’Italia. I also think that we are all a bit worn out from these Sicilian stages that featured up and down courses. Many of us were not brilliant today. We climbed quite fast, but without making the difference”

The Numbers

• It’s the second stage victory for Esteban Chaves at the Giro d’Italia after stage 14 to Corvara Alta Badia in 2016. He scores the 27th stage win of all time for Colombian riders. From the day he became the first-ever Colombian winner of a Monument with victory at the 2016 Il Lombardia, Chaves’ only victories were stage 3 and GC of the Herald Sun Tour in Australia in February this year.
• It’s the first-ever podium for Simon Yates at the Giro d’Italia. He’s the fourth British rider to take the Maglia Rosa after Mark Cavendish (in 2009, 2011 and 2013), Bradley Wiggins (in 2010) and David Millar (in 2011). He’s the first British leader after an uphill finish. British riders have recorded a total of seven days in the lead of the Giro d’Italia so far.
• It’s the fifth stage podium for Thibaut Pinot. Four of them have been conquered in mountain stages: winner of stage 20 to Asiago; second in stage 9 to the Blockhaus; and third positions in stage 15 to Bergamo and stage 18 to Ortisei last year. It’s his second Giro d’Italia.