“I’m enjoying every day in the pink jersey and it’s nice to wear it again tomorrow" - Andreas Leknessund ready for first real challenge to his Maglia Rosa on stage 7 at the Giro d'Italia

Finishing safely in the bunch on a frantic finale to stage 6 at the Giro d'Italia, Andreas Leknessund ensured himself another day in the Maglia Rosa. Tomorrow's stage 7 summit finish however could prove a challenge to his overall race lead.

“I’m enjoying every day in the pink jersey and it’s nice to wear it again tomorrow," Leknessund told the official website of his Team DSM following the conclusion stage 6 in Napoli. "It was a high pace all day with a really strong group, and we had to chase really hard in the peloton. It was hard and narrow, up and down all day, so I’m happy we were able to all come through it in a good way.”

Mads Pedersen was the eventual winner of the stage, breaking the hearts of the experienced duo Simon Clarke and Alessandro De Marchi who had spent the whole day in the breakaway before being caught with just 200m to go to the line.

It was a super stressful day, hectic the whole way through. We were focused on sprinting with Marius as our finisher and keeping the jersey with Andreas," recaps Team DSM coach Matt Winston. "Alberto Dainese punctured at 30 kilometres to go and with the race situation then at that moment it wasn’t possible for him to return to the peloton with several dropped riders. That meant Marius Mayrhofer was a bit alone in the lead-out but sprinted to eighth and we did okay to protect the jersey and defended that in a good way.”