Stage 6

The road

At the start

The Giro borrows Strade Bianche

A four-man move stole Lucca and the classification is untouched: Pogačar leads Geraint Thomas by 46 seconds and Daniel Martínez by 47, with the top twenty inside 2:33. Today is the day the route has pointed at all week: three sectors of Tuscan gravel, 11.6 kilometres of it, inside the last fifty, then a twenty-per-cent kick to Serre di Rapolano. Pogačar won Strade Bianche in March off an eighty-kilometre attack.

How it was won

1. 176 km to go

   Groves drives the split

   After two furious hours a break finally forms, sprinter-climber Kaden Groves ripping the pace to gather the day's move and mop up intermediate points.

2. 247 km to go

   Onto the white roads

   The race hits the first strade bianche sector in a swirl of dust and crosswind, Ineos seizing the front of the peloton to keep the gap in check.

3. 317 km to go

   Plapp splinters the break on the Grotti

   Luke Plapp attacks on the Grotti gravel and only Alaphilippe and Pelayo Sánchez can follow, the trio riding the virtual race lead as the peloton chases through the dust.

4. 45 km to go

   The final kicker

   On the short steep ramp inside 5km, Sánchez and Alaphilippe kick clear of a metering Plapp, the two of them left to fight out the win into Rapolano Terme.

5. 5At the line

   Sánchez outfoxes Alaphilippe

   Alaphilippe opens the uphill sprint but Pelayo Sánchez has read it perfectly, coming past for a career-defining win as the maglia rosa keeps his powder dry behind.

The result