SCALEA, Italy (Reuters) – Frenchman Arnaud Demare came through on the line to make it back-to-back victories at the Giro d’Italia after taking stage six, a 192-kilometre (119-mile) ride from Palmi to Scalea, on Thursday.
Demare, of Groupama–FDJ, was expected to go head-to-head with British sprint specialist Mark Cavendish and Australian Caleb Ewan in Wednesday’s stage five in Sicily, but Demare came through a packed field to win with ease.
Fans did not miss out on the sprint experts facing off this time around as Demare, Cavendish and Ewan all went for the line in Scalea, with Demare just pipping Ewan by millimetres, as a frustrated Cavendish came home in third.
Local Italian rider Diego Rosa was the early pacer-setter, leading the flat stage six on his own for much of the race, with all the teams’ respective sprinters getting into position in a packed peloton further back.
Rosa relinquished his lead as the peloton closed the gap, with Ewan and Cavendish both looking in good positions ahead of the final sprint, before Demare came out of nowhere to take his seventh career Giro stage victory in a photo finish.
Spaniard Juan Pedro Lopez retained the pink jersey and overall lead in the general classification.
Stage seven of the Giro is a tough, mountainous 198-kilometre ride from Diamante to Potenza.
(Reporting by Peter Hall; Editing by Alex Richardson)
