Having moved into the overall lead of the race on yesterday’s stage to Valle Castellana, Jonas Vingegaard is set to seal his general classification victory at Tirreno-Adriatico after a dominant stage win on the slopes of Monte Petrano on stage six.
The Visma-Lease a Bike rider further extended his lead over both Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates) and Jai Hindley (Bora-Hansgrohe) in the overall standings, as he attacked away from both of them with around 6km to go, with neither of them able to go with him.
Vingegaard now leads the general classification by a minute and 24 seconds going into the final stage around San Benedetto del Tronto tomorrow, which is expected to be a stage for the sprinters, meaning that barring any crashes he will win the race overall.
The stage started with a strong nine-man breakaway going clear, which included the likes of Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal Quick-Step), Michał Kwiatkowski (Ineos Grenadiers), Iván García Cortina (Movistar) and Andreas Leknessund (Uno-X), as well as Richard Carapaz and Ben Healy from EF Education-EasyPost.
During the breakaway formation phase of the stage there was a small crash in the peloton, which saw several riders go down including Max Poole (dsm-firmenich PostNL), who was forced to abandon the race after being in eleventh place in the overall standings prior to the start of the stage.
With around 40km to go there were just four riders left in the breakaway, as Ben Healy set a brutal pace on the front of the group in service of Richard Carapaz, with only García Cortina and Leknessund able to follow as their gap began to worry the peloton behind.
Healy then called it a day on the Moria climb, with García Cortina also dropping off from the group. Leknessund and Carapaz then worked together in the valley road to the foot of Monte Petrano, but the Norwegian rider was unable to keep pace with the Colombian as they hit the lower slopes of the climb.
With the peloton not far behind, Jai Hindley attacked from the main group with 6.6km to go, with Jonas Vingegaard and Juan Ayuso in his wheel, as they caught Carapaz before the Danish rider then launched his decisive attack a few hundred metres later, with nobody able to hold his wheel.
Alone at the front of the race, Vingegaard continued to extend his lead over the two chasers, with Tom Pidcock pacing for his Ineos Grenadiers teammate Thymen Arensman in the group behind.
In the end, it was all too easy for Vingegaard, as he pushed on to the finish and celebrated his dominant victory as he crossed the line in Maglia Azzurra.
Behind him, Ayuso came from behind Hindley to beat him in the sprint for second place for the second day in a row, with the Australian forced to settle for third place once again.
Meanwhile, Ayuso’s teammate Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates) had made his way up through the groups to take fourth place on the stage, after having previously been dropped, which moved him up to fourth overall.
The stage victory practically sealed Vingegaard’s overall victory, as with over a minute’s lead ahead of second place Ayuso in the general classification, it is very unlikely that he will lose the jersey on tomorrow’s sprint stage around San Benedetto del Tronto.
RESULTS: TIRRENO-ADRIATICO, STAGE SIX, SASSOFERRATO > MONTE PETRANO (180KM)
1. Jonas Vingegaard (Den) Visma-Lease a Bike, in 4:31:57
2. Juan Ayuso (Spa) UAE Team Emirates, +26s
3. Jai Hindley (Aus) Bora-Hansgrohe
4. Isaac del Toro (Mex) UAE Team Emirates, +36s
5. Tom Pidcock (GBr) Ineos Grenadiers, +42s
6. Ben O'Connor (Aus) Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale
7. Lennard Kämna (Ger) Bora-Hansgrohe, +46s
8. Thymen Arensman (Ned) Ineos Grenadiers
9. Cian Uijtdebroeks (Bel) Visma-Lease A Bike, +48s
10. Wout Poels (Ned) Bahrain Victorious, +1:14
GENERAL CLASSIFICATION AFTER STAGE SIX
1. Jonas Vingegaard (Den) Visma-Lease a Bike, in 23:06:32
2. Juan Ayuso (Esp) UAE Team Emirates, +1:24
3. Jai Hindley (Aus) Bora-Hansgrohe, +1:52
4. Isaac del Toro (Mex) UAE Team Emirates +2:20
5. Ben O'Connor (Aus) Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale +2:24
6. Thymen Arensman (Ned) Ineos Grenadiers +2:25
7. Cian Uijtdebroeks (Bel) Visma-Lease A Bike +3:10
8. Tom Pidcock (GBr) Ineos Grenadiers, +4:02
9. Lennard Kämna (Ger) Bora-Hansgrohe, +4:05
10. Kévin Vaquelin (Fra) Arkéa-B&B Hotels, +4:24
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