Place Name: Via Francesco Caracciolo
Address: Via Francesco Caracciolo 37, 80122 Napoli Naples, Italy
Details: May 15, 2025
There might be 2,500M of climbing today but it will likely end in a bunch sprint. All of the elevation gain is in the first two-thirds of the stage which is the longest stage of this Giro at 227KM. The first categorized climb starts 36KM after they leave Potenza with the first Intermediate Sprint coming near the bottom of the category 2 Valico Di Monte Carruozzo. It is a 20KM climb but it only averages 3.7%. A long descent into Sant'Andrea di Conza leads the riders towards the second Intermediate Sprint in Lioni with 139KM to go. There is an unclassified climb out of Cassano Irpino and the category 3 climb of Monteforte Irpino, a 14.5KM climb at just over 2%, before a 65KM flat run into Napoli for the finish.
The race started uphill under overcast skies and threats of rain later in the day. After 5KM of racing, Michel Ries ofArkéa-B&B Hotels, Ben Turner of Ineos, Josef Černý of Soudal Quickstep, Felix Engelhardt of Jayco AlUla, Manuele Tarozzi of VF-Group Bardiani CSF-Faizanè, and Lorenzo Fortunato of XDS-Astana broke clear. Lorenzo Germani of Groupama-FDJ bridged up and made 7 riders at the front with 208KM to go. Ineos were not content with just Turner in the break so Josh Tarling attacked from the bunch and brough his teammate Lucas Hamilton as well as Jan Tratnik of Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe, Mathias Vacek of Lidl-Trek, and Davide Formolo of Movistar with him. Visma-Lease a Bike could not let a Lidl-Trek rider up the road and they brought the race all back together with 196KM to go. The attacking started once again with just 5KM to go before the start of Valico Di Monte Carruozzo.
Taco van der Hoorn of Intermarché-Wanty and Enzo Paleni of Groupama-FDJ attacked and started the climb with a 90 second lead. Visma-Lease a Bike and Lidl-Trek sat across the road and it wasn't until 185KM to go, when the leaders had 3 minutes, that Lucas Hamilton went on the move again, this time with Fortunato following quickly behind. Hamilton sat up as Fortunato pressed on in an effort to catch the leaders and take the Mountains Points. He made it up to van der Hoorn and Paleni with 6KM to climb, at which point they had an advantage of 4 minutes 30 seconds. Fortunato took the maximum points at the top but their gap was down to 3 minutes with Visma-Lease a Bike setting a solid pace behind.
Rain drops began to fall near the bottom of the descent and just a few kilometers later, the roads were completely soaked as they entered Sant'Andrea di Conza with 154KM to go. Fortunato sat up and drifted back to the bunch where Visma-Lease a Bike were still controlling. Lidl-Trek led out for the second Intermediate Sprint in Lioni but Mads Pedersen went too early and got rolled by Jensen Plowright of Alpecin-Deceuninck and Olav Kooij of Visma-Lease a Bike. Alpecin-Deceuninck added to the chase and the bunch kept the break at 2 minutes.
Rain was still gently falling as they started to climb up to Monteforte Irpino. The gap was still 1 minute by the top at 80KM from the line as they started the descent towards Napoli. With around 70KM to go, a Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe touched a wheel on the downhill and, with the damp and greasy roads, riders came down like dominos behind. At least a quarter of the bunch crashed and the organizers were forced to neutralize the race. They kept the peloton rolling slowly to allow everyone to come back. The first to confirm an abandon was Jai Hindley of Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe and a few moments later, the entire race halted.
After around 10 minutes of waiting, van der Hoorn and Paleni were let go and allowed to reestablished their 1 minute gap with 60KM to race. At the Redbull Golden Kilometer, we were informed that no bonus seconds or points would be awarded for the sprint or finish, no time cutoff would be applied, and all times on GC would be held constant. A stage win was still available however and the sprint teams needed to catch the two leaders. The chasing was made difficult by the slick roads and with 30KM to go as they entered the outskirts of Napoli with Mount Visuvius on the horizon, the gap was still 30 seconds.
Groups started to drop out the back with 25KM to go, including Mads Pedersen, since there was everything to risk and not much to gain for many riders. Van der Hoorn and Paleni were still holding 30 seconds with 18KM to go but new teams joined the chase including Polti-VisitMalta, Decathlon AG2R, and Picnic-PostNL. A bit of panic set in with 9KM to go when the gap was still sitting at 23 seconds. Cofidis added a man but the route was getting more technical as they entered the center of Napoli. Alpecin-Deceuninck put their full train on the front with 3.5KM to go which ticked back the last few seconds and the break were finally with 2.5KM to go after a very strong effort.
Only the sprinters and their lead out riders were left in the peloton, now only about 50 riders. Decathlon AG2R led through 2KM to go but it was Alpecin-Deceuninck who took the bunch under the 1KM to go banner. Plowright found himself with a gap off the front and pinned his ears back to make it to the line. Wout van Aert of Visma-Lease a Bike went in pursuit and caught Plowright with 500M to go. The group caught van Aert at 225M just as Matteo Moschetti of Q36.5 launched his sprint. It looked like he got a good jump but Kooij was coming on Moschetti's left side in between himself and the barriers. Moschetti closed the door but lost valuable momentum in doing so. Kaden Groves of Alpecin-Deceuninck came from the opposite side like a rocket and cruised home to take the victory by a few bike lengths. Milan Fretin of Cofidis came across second with Paul Magnier of Soudal Quickstep in third place.
Moschetti was relegated for putting Kooij into the barriers, moving him from 8th to last place. As mentioned, all of the GC times were neutralized so there were no changes in the overall. As the stage rolled on we picked up that, along with Hindley, Juri Hollmann of Alpecin-Deceuninck, Dion Smith of Intermarché-Wanty, and Alessandro Pinarello of VF-Group Bardiani CSF-Faizanè had also abandoned the Giro.
Tags: Giro d'Italia, 2025, Stage 6, May, Giro d'Italia 2025, Potenza, Napoli, Michel Ries, Ben Turner, Josef Černý, Felix Engelhardt, Manuele Tarozzi, Lorenzo Fortunato, Lorenzo Germani, Josh Tarling, Lucas Hamilton, Jan Tratnik, Mathias Vacek, Davide Formolo, Taco van der Hoorn, Enzo Paleni, Jensen Plowright, Olav Kooij, Wout van Aert, Matteo Moschetti, Kaden Groves, Milan Fretin, Paul Magnier