Michael Matthews (Orica-GreenEDGE) got his desired stage win in today's sixth stage of the Giro d'Italia after beating Tim Wellens (Lotto Belisol) and Cadel Evans (BMC) in an uphill sprint at the end of a hugely dramatic race that saw Evans gain 49 seconds on his main rivals. A big crash at the bottom of the final climb split the peloton and while BMC drove a select front group to the top, the rest of the favourites failed to cooperate, allowing the Australian to make huge time gains.

 

24 hours ago Michael Matthews was hugely disappointed when he missed out on the victory in the stage that he had pinpointed as his big target. Today he made amends when he took an impressive victory in a hugely dramatic sixth stage to the top of the Montecassino climb.

 

As it had been the case in the previous stages in Italy, rain started to fall just as the riders started to ramp up the speed for the finale and again it had dramatic consequences as two big crashes split the peloton to pieces and brought down several riders. As the dust had settled, a select front group had escaped consisting almost entirely of BMC and Orica-GreenEDGE riders as those two teams had been the only ones to be on the right side of the split.

 

BMC were quick to exploit the situation and immediately put down the hammer. By the time, they started the final 8km climb to the finish, they were already 40 seconds ahead of the peloton where it took some time to organize a chase.

 

Orica-GreenEDGE and BMC rode a hard tempo all the way up the climb, with Daniel Oss, Luke Durbridge and finally Steve Morabito all taking some massive turns on the front. Behind, the peloton finally got going when Movistar upped the pace in a quest to reduce the time losses for Nairo Quintana.

 

However, the Spanish team quickly emptied their resources and when Ag2r and Omega Pharma-Quick Step also used their final riders, the group came to a virtual standstill. Instead, it became a race of attacking that allowed the small front group to gain more time.

 

When Morabito swung off under the flamme rouge, Evans launched a fierce acceleration. Ivan Santaromita (Orica-GreenEDGE) fell off the pace while Matthews, Tim Wellens and Matteo Rabottini (Neri Sottoli) hung on for dear life.

 

The Australian rode hard all the way to the line to maximize his time gains, thus bringing Matthews in the perfect position. The race leader had no trouble holding off Wellens and Evans with a well-timed sprint inside the final 100m to take his first ever Giro d'Italia stage victory.

 

49 seconds later Wilco Kelderman (Belkin) led a diminished group of favourites across the line, with several key riders losing even more time. Damiano Cunego (Lampre-Merida) had a late puncture while Michele Scarponi (Astana) and Przemyslaw Niemiec (Lampre-Merida) were both held up behind the crashes.

 

The big loser, however, was Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) who went down himself, and struggled all the way up the climb, clearly in a lot of pain. The Spaniard's dreams of overall victory have been crushed and his further participation is in doubt.

 

With the victory, Matthews extended his overall lead and he now has a 21-second advantage over Evans who moves into second. Tomorrow he faces an easier task when the seventh stage brings the riders over 211km from Frosinone to Foligno. The stage is lumpy and has a hard climb just 40km from the finish, opening the doors for either the strong sprinters or a breakaway.

 

The longest stage

After yesterday's first uphill finish, the peloton faced a second consecutive stage with a climb at the end as they took on the sixth stage from Sassano to Montecassino. The stage was originally set to be 247km but due to landslides, an extra 10km were added to the route, making it the longest stage of the race. The first part was mostly flat with just one small climb along the way but it all came to a difficult conclusion on the final category 2 climb. With an average gradient of just 5.1%, the 8.7km climb was not too difficult and expected to suit the puncheurs more than the climbers.

 

For the first time in this year's race, the riders could take off under beautiful sunshine when they started their long northern journey. One rider didn't make the start as Giorgio Cecchninel (Neri Sottoli) hadn't recovered sufficiently from his illness and decided to abandon his first grand tour.

 

The break takes off

The combination of a slight headwind and a very long stage meant that not many riders showed any interest in being part of today's early break. Things were still together after 5km of racing but then Marco Bandiera (Androni), Edoardo Zardini (Bardiani), Rodolfo Torres (Colombia) and Andrea Fedi (Neri Sottoli) took off.

 

The peloton was content with the situation and allowed the gap to grow at a quick rate. After 28km of racing, the escapees were 5 minutes ahead and 7km further up the road, the advantage had doubled.

 

Orica start to chase

Orica-GreenEDGE assumed their position on the front but were still not chasing and the gap reached a maximum of a massive 14 minutes after 61km of racing. That was as much as they would get though and Orica-GreenEDGE started to stabilize the situation.

 

As the Australian team upped the pace, the gap came down to 10 minutes and when Sky decided to lend them a hand - the British team were keen to set up Ben Swift and Edvald Boasson Hagen - it reached 8 minutes.

 

Torres takes KOM points

Sky again stopped working and so the gap went up to 9 minutes by the time the escapees contested the day's first KOM sprint. Torres beat Zardini and Bandiera to take maximum points.

 

Sky went back to work and while Bernhard Eisel (Sky) and Luke Durbridge (Orica-GreenEDGE) swapped turns on the front, the gap continued to come down. With 100km to go, it was only 5.40 and so Orica again stopped working.

 

Eisel sets the pace

This left Eisel to set the pace and the Austrian led the group single-handedly for several kilometres, always keeping the gap stable around 5.30. Up ahead, the escapees didn't contest the intermediate sprint, with Fedi leading Bandiera, Zardini and Torres across the line.

 

There was still one point on offer for the fastest rider in the peloton and Cannondale tried to set up a lead-out. Paolo Longo Borghini got an unintentional gap but FDJ brought it back together for Nacer Bouhanni.

 

Ruffoni wins the sprint

Daniele Ratto made his lead-out but as Bouhanni had taken his wheel, the Frenchman was in the perfect position and seemed to had secured himself the final point. However, Nicola Ruffoni (Bardiani) did a fantastic sprint to pass him just before the line.

 

Eisel went back to work and continued to keep the gap stable until the peloton decided to take a collective natural break 60km from the line. Eisel refused to do any more work and so the gap went back up to 6.40.

 

Trek take over

Trek had big plans for Julian Arredondo and so Eugenio Alafaci and Danilo Hondo hit the front. Eisel went back to join them and those three riders quickly brought the gap significantly down.

 

With 40km to go, it started to rain and so the battle for position intensified. Katusha and OPQS both briefly hit the front but as the roads again became dry, it again slowed down.

 

The break is caught

Trek hit the front with Alafaci and Hondo and they had brought the gap down to 1.30 with 26km to go. That's when the battle for position again started and the Trek riders got swamped as all the big teams lined out their trains on the front.

 

The escapees shook hands as they were about to get swallowed up and with 12km to go, they were brought back. Torres tried to make one last desperate attack but was quickly passed by Iljo Keisse who ramped up the speed for OPQS with BMC in his wake.

 

Crashes split the field

With 11km to go, drama unfolded when two big crashes happened straight after each other. Giampaolo Caruso was the worst affected and was transported away by an ambulance.

 

The crashes had split the peloton to pieces and up ahead a small front group made mostly up of BMC and Orica-GreenEDGE riders had formed. BMC were riding hard to maximize their gains, with Manuel Quinziato leading them onto the climb.

 

BMC drive the pace

On the lower slopes, Daniel Oss hit the front and whittled down the group to just himself, his teammates Evans and Morabito, Santaromita, Matthews, Durbridge, Wellens and Rabottini. Behind, the peloton had finally upped the pace as Movistar had hit the front with Jose Herrada.

 

The Spaniard brought the gap down from 48 to 33 seconds but when he swung off, no one was keen to take responsibility. Up ahead, Durbridge had taken over from Oss and when he swung off 5km from the line, Morabito hit the front,

 

OPQS lead the chase

In the peloton, Kelderman made a small attack but when he failed to get clear, Ag2r and OPQS took over the pace-setting with Hubert Dupont and Wouter Poels. They kept the gap stable at around 30 seconds and when they finished their job, OPQS sacrificed Gianluca Brambilla.

 

When the Italian swung off, it came to a standstill which opened the door for Robert Kiserlovski (Trek) to try an attack. He got a nice gap but Poels had now recovered and brought him back.

 

Evans makes his move

Up ahead, Morabito swung off under the flamme rouge which prompted Evans to make a big acceleration. Santaromita fell off while Matthews, Wellens and Rabottini managed to stay with the strong Australian.

 

Evans led the group all the way to the 100m to go sign when Matthews launched his sprint. The Orica rider easily passed Evans and so took his first Giro stage win.

 

Behind, the favourites had brought back a late attack from Ulissi and it was Kelderman who won the sprint for 7th, 49 seconds after Matthews had crossed the line. For the next several minutes, wounded riders kept crossing the line on a very dramatic day in Southern Italy.