Pedersen opens with a tyrannical sprint

Winding and sawtooth course inappropriate for healing wounds. The excursion near Vesuvius was not comfortable for Remco Evenepoel, still sore from falls from the arrival of Salermo. Comanche terrain in the sixth installment of the eastern Giro, with start and finish in Naples, turns out in an agonizing and favorable way for Mads Pedersen. First volata for the former road world champion in an appointment with no changes in the general classification. The Norwegian Leknessund commands the test with 28 seconds of advantage over Evenepoel.

The Danish missile added his third victory of the season and the 30th of his professional career in a date in which he will always be indebted to his Trek squires, who controlled the tempo and set the right pace to neutralize the escape of two brave Alessandro De Marchi (Jayco) and Simon Clarke (Israel), neutralized just 100 meters from the finish line.

The tyrannical peloton had no mercy on two expedition members who sought their day of glory after the halfway point of the stage. The day, without rain, was enlivened by the breakaway made up of the aforementioned De Marchi and Clarke and Alexandre Delettre (Cofidis), Francesco Gavazzi (Eolo Kometa) and Charlie Quarterman (Corratec).. Clarke and Di Marchi, by natural selection, were left alone in the lead with 25 kilometers to go, with the Trek pressing under the orders of Pedersen, the work of the Eritrean Amanuel Geebreigzah and Mollema enormous.

In the middle of the hunting maneuver, nerves took over the peloton, with a flat tire from Primoz Roglic and an inconsequential fall for Geraint Thomas in a treacherous roundabout. The escapees maintained an income of 40 seconds with five kilometers to go, 14 seconds with 1,000 meters to go. It seemed that Clarke and De Marchi were going to complete the feat, but the peloton, propelled by an acceleration from Gaviria, engulfed the adventurers with only a breath to go before the conclusion. There appeared the figure of Pedersen to premiere palmarès in the Giro.

This Friday, the Dane will move away from the center of the stage to leave room for the climbers, with a new contact with the mountains, with departure from Capua and arrival at Campo Imperatore in Gran Sasso, 218 kilometers and 4,000 meters of accumulated altitude gain. The final stretch of the day is complicated, with a constant ascent of 40 kilometers. The Gran Sasso is a 20-kilometer summit. The last 3,000 meters have an average gradient of 7.9% and stretches of 13%. The last winner on that summit was Simon Yates, in the 2018 edition. What is foreseeable is a change of leader in the overall.

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