Mads Pedersen breaks breakaway hearts to take the win in dramatic finale to stage 6 at the Giro d'Italia

Mads Pedersen took his Giro d'Italia stage win from a bunch sprint but that doesn't tell the full story as the breakaway duo of Alessandro De Marchi and Simon Clarke suffered heartbreak, being caught with 200m to go.

Being hosted in the city of the recently crowned Serie A champions, there was a palpable buzz in the air on stage 6 in Napoli. It won't feature the same local circuit as the 2022 stage there however, and although it was expected to be a day for the fast men the breakaway couldn't be ruled out.

Hoping it would indeed be a day for the break were Alexandre Delettre (Cofidis), Francesco Gavazzi (EOLO-Kometa), Simon Clarke (Israel - Premier Tech), Charlie Quarterman (Team Corratec - Selle Italia) and Alessandro De Marchi (Team Jayco AlUla).

With Gavazzi the best-placed rider overall down 17:27, there was no threat to the Maglia Rosa and immediately the gap grew towards 5 minutes.

As the INEOS Grenadiers took to the front of the peloton in order to keep Tao Geoghegan Hart and Geraint Thomas safe on a tricky descent that time gap dropped dramatically. As soon as the descent was finished and INEOS faded back into the bunch the gap stabilised at around 4 minutes.

Mark Cavendish however, who crashed as he was crossing the finish line on stage 5 was unable to stay with the peloton on the first climb and with 78km to go he was nearly 6 minutes behind the breakaway and 2 minutes behind the peloton.

After cresting the final categorised climb of the day, the two most experienced riders in the breakaway, Clarke and De Marchi rode clear on the descent.

As the leading duo rode clear their former breakaway companions had seemingly lost their belief and were soon swept back up by the peloton.

With 35km to go, Clarke and De Marchi still had a lead of 2:27 meaning a bunch sprint finish was by no means a formality.

10 kilometres later that time gap had only dropped to 2:10 and suddenly the chances for the leading duo to take victory looked good.

There was more drama for Primoz Roglic who after surviving a late crash yesterday to finish in the bunch, required a mechanical just as the pace was really being upped at the front of the race with 15km to go.

Thankfully for the Slovenian and his fans, Roglic was able to safely latch onto the back of the peloton. Geraint Thomas was then the next one with a worry as his chain seemingly came off, leaving him behind the bunch with 11km to go.

Up ahead, Clarke, who was looking to complete his Grand Tour stage win hat-trick and De Marchi still had a lead of 1:00 as they passed the 10km to go banner.

With Filippo Ganna trying to guide Thomas back through the convoy of cars, and dropped riders, the INEOS Grenadiers leader was frantically battling to ensure he wouldn't be losing time to his GC rivals.

Still, the leading duo had 40 seconds with just 5km left to the line.

All the GC riders, Roglic and Thomas included safely navigated the 3km to go marker but with Clarke and De Marchi still holding a 30 second lead the sprint trains were panicking.

Just 14 seconds was the gap at 1km to go and the experienced breakaway duo were beginning to look behind.

With just 200m to the line they were caught as Fernando Gaviria led out the sprint. Mads Pedersen though came roaring around the Colombian to take the stage win as a heartbroken Clarke and De Marchi shared a moment together in the background.

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