Kaden Groves wins crash-marred Giro d’Italia stage 6 in Naples

Kaden Groves won a crash-marred stage six of the Giro d’Italia in Naples as a protest disrupted the finish and reduced bunch sprint.

The Australian launched an unanswerable sprint for the line to take his first win of the season after Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) ran out of gas in his bid for victory. Milan Fretin (Cofidis) took second, with Soudal Quick-Step’s Paul Magnier grabbing third on the line.

After a huge crash took out large numbers of riders earlier on in the race, much of the stage played out with news trickling through that several riders had abandoned. The biggest name to go home was Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe’s Jai Hindley, a former Giro winner. A two-man breakaway, consisting of Taco van der Hoorn (Intermarché-Wanty) and Enzo Paleni (Groupama-FDJ), was caught with around two kilometres left to race.

Visma-Lease a Bike looked to disrupt the reduced sprint for the line with Van Aert, although he was then caught and passed by the rest of the pack with Groves powering to the win. The GC times for the day were neutralised because of the crash, meaning that race leader Mads Pedersen (Lidl-trek) was one of several riders who sat up and did not look to contest the sprint. Despite not finishing in the main group, Pedersen held onto the overall lead going into stage seven.

"The first win of the year is a big relief," Groves said afterwards. "Once it started raining, I felt quite a bit better actually as I’m quite good in the cold and wetter conditions, so I for sure had good confidence and I believed in the team who did a super job."

The win was almost two-years to the day since Groves won in Salerno on another day hit by crashes at the Giro.

How it happened

Stage six was the longest stage in this year’s Giro d’Italia. The riders faced a long, rolling day in the saddle as they took on the 227 kilometres between Potenza and Napoli. Two categorised climbs at Valco di Monte Carruozzo and Monteforte Irpino were on the menu.

The climb out of Potenza caused a few initial splits. A six man move managed to get away, including Ineos Grenadiers Ben Turner and the early King of the Mountains leader Lorenzo Fortunato (XDS Astana). The initial break eventually came to nothing, but Enzo Paleni (Groupama-FDJ) and Taco van der Hoorn (Intermarché) were the next guys to go on the attack, quickly pushing their lead out to more than four minutes.

Unfortunately for the peloton, the rain began to come down hard as the stage progressed with riders visibly pulling on wet weather gear in order to deal with the changing conditions. With 72 kilometres to go, there was a huge crash in the main field and multiple riders went down. Several appeared badly injured in the fall with many requiring medical treatment before they could continue. The race was neutralised by the organiser [RCS] to allow as many riders as possible to receive care. Former Giro winner Jai Hindley (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) was one of the first to go down and was taken away in an ambulance.

After initially appearing to abandon, Soudal Quick-Step’s Josef Černý was able to continue, although the Czech rider’s legs were visibly soaked in blood as he climbed back onto his bike. The race restarted at 60 kilometres to go with the initial breakaway duo given a 50-second gap to the rest of the peloton.

With no GC times taken at the end of the race due to the crash, a large group of riders - including race leader Mads Pedersen - sat up and opted not to race for the stage victory. RCS said that there would be no points or bonus seconds awarded in Naples with the classifications all set at the moment of the crash. Paleni and Van der Hoorn were caught with two kilometres to race.

Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck) then came out on top in a reduced bunch sprint to take the win.

Results

Giro d'Italia 2025, stage six: Potenza > Napoli (227km)

1. Kaden Groves (Aus) Alpecein-Deceuninck, in 4:59:52
2. Milan Fretin (Bel) Cofidis,
3. Paul Magnier (Fra) Soudal Quick-Step,
4. Max Kanter (Ger) Cofidis,
5. Giovanni Lonardi (Ita) Polti-VisitMalta
6. Maikel Zijlaard (Ned) Tudor Pro Cycling,
7. Martin Marcellusi (Ita) VF Group-Bardiani CSF Faizane,
8. Luca Mozzato (Ita) Arkea B&B Hotels,
9. Matevz Govekar (Slo) Bahrain Victorious,
10. Olav Kooij (Ned) Visma-Lease a Bike, all at same time

General classification after stage six

1. Mads Pedersen (Den) Lidl-Trek, in 20:11:44
2. Primož Roglič (Slo) Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, +17s
3. Mathias Vacek (Cze) Lidl-Trek, +24s
4. Brandon McNulty (USA) UAE Team Emirates-XRG, +31s
5. Isaac Del Toro (Mex) UAE Team Emirates-XRG, +32s
6. Juan Ayuso (Spa) UAE Team Emirates-XRG, +35s
7. Max Poole (GBr) Picnic PostNL, +43s
8. Antonio Tiberi (Ita) Bahrain-Victorious, +44s
9. Michael Storer (Aus) Tudor Pro Cycling, +46s
10. Guido Pellizzari (Ita) Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, +50s