Giro d’Italia, sixth stage in Demare. Lopez remains in the pink jersey

At the photofinish the encore of the victory in Messina: seventh stage victory for Arnaud. Cavendish third and Girmay fourth, Nizzolo fifth. The Spaniard Lopez remains in the squad. Day attack for Rosa, 141 km alone

What a flight to Scalea, what uncertainty. Sixth stage of the 105th Giro d’Italia, Palmi-Scalea (Riviera dei Cedri), 192 kilometers: in the last meters, the Frenchman Arnaud Demare repeats the victory in Messina and overtakes the Australian Caleb Ewan in the photo finish. Cavendish third and Girmay fourth, Giacomo Nizzolo fifth, once again the best of ours in the sprint. A sprint launched very well by the Dane Morkov at 550 meters, and then by Cavendish, but Demare bullies out of Ewan’s wheel in the center and with a shot of the kidneys manages to resist the Australian’s return. With seven stage victories, Demare, who is 30 years old and was the Under 23 world champion in Copenhagen 2011, thus becomes the most successful Frenchman ever, overtaking Anquetil and Hinault at six. Demare thus strengthens its leadership in the points classification.

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The escape A day of warm sunshine and tranquility, ideal for cycling, and the group gave way to the Piedmontese Diego Rosa (Eolo-Kometa), fleeing from km 22 up to 29 km from the finish. In all 141 km attack for Rosa, 33, also looking for himself after too many years of darkness, he who was second in the Giro di Lombardia 2016. This time all the teams took a day of (relative) relaxation , considering what awaits the riders in the coming days. The sprinter teams take matters into their own hands ten kilometers from the finish.
Classification The young Spaniard Juan Pedro Lopez, 24, remains in the pink jersey on the third day with the leader’s jersey, who commands with 39 “over the German Kamna and 58” over the Estonian Taaramae. Briton Simon Yates is the virtual pink jersey of the big names with 16 “on Almeida, 24” on Bardet and Carapaz, 33 “on Landa; Valverde at 41 “and Nibali at 2’34”.

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Program From Friday to Sunday there is a very demanding triptych of stages: Friday Diamante-Potenza, 196 km and 4510 meters in altitude through the Lucanian Apennines, arriving on the stretch at 13% of Potenza; Saturday Naples-Naples, 153 km and 2310 meters in altitude, with the fearsome Monte di Procida circuit to be repeated three times; Sunday Isernia-Blockhaus, 190 km and 5000 meters in altitude, with an uphill arrival on the Blockhaus, the Merckx climb, which will be tackled from two sides.

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