Tirreno-Adriatico 2025 Stage 6

March 15, 2025 With the final day being a likely bunch sprint, today is the last day any material change should occur in the GC. The road gradually goes up for the entire stage, ending at just over 1,300M above sea level in Frontignano. There is 3,500M of elevation gain across the 163KM route. Most of the climbing is done on short, gradual climbs of 5KM or less. That is until the final test of the day which is 7.6KM at almost 8% up to the ski resort of Frontignano-Ussita. The GC teams were expected to control the day but that did not put off teams from trying to make the break. In the end, eight riders got away including Gianni Vermeersch of Alpecin-Deceuninck, Benjamin Thomas of Cofidis, Andrea Vendrame of Decathlon AG2R, Samuele Battistella of EF-Education EasyPost, Jasper Stuyven of Lidl-Trek, Chris Hamilton of Picnic-PostNL, Alessandro Tonelli of Polti-VisitMalta, and Magnus Cort of Uno-X Mobility. Their lead was 3 minutes 30 seconds with 98KM to go with UAE-XRG and Q36.5 doing the chasing. By the time the break got to Fabriano with 80KM to go, they had extended their lead up to 4 minutes 30 seconds. With about 70KM to go on a steep hill, Benjamin Thomas tried to hand a bidon over to a fan but the person grabbed the bottle and also hit his brake hood. Thomas somehow kept it upright but it surely would have spiked his adrenalin. Great crowds greeted the riders in Matelica at 64KM to go but the peloton would not have had much time to notice because they increased the pace and brought the gap back down to 3 minutes 20 seconds. A few kilometers later, the break got to the bottom of the 5.5KM Crispiero climb. There was no action on the climb but second by second was being chipped away from the breakaway's lead and by the time they reach Visso with 13KM to go, the gap was down to 2 minutes. A false flat drag of about 2% took the riders from Visso to the base of the climb. With the positioning fight in the bunch, the gap quickly dissolved to 1 minute 20 seconds when they made the sharp left turn to start climbing. Bahrain Victorious set the pace early but UAE-XRG took over and had the bunch in single file. With 5KM to go, a gap appeared about 20 wheels back and Laurens De Plus of Ineos, starting the day seventh overall, was sliding backwards. The back door swung wide open with 4.3KM to go when Juan Ayuso of UAE-XRG attacked. The move swallowed the breakaway and a group of four formed at the front containing Ayuso, Tom Pidcock of Q36.5, Jai Hindley of Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe, and Mikel Landa of Soudal Quickstep. Ayuso finally cracked the others with 3.3KM to go and was off in solo pursuit of the finish line. No one would catch him, giving Aysuso the stage win and likely the GC as well. Pidcock beat Hindley in the sprint for second, 13 seconds behind Ayuso. Landa took fourth with Antonio Tiberi of Bahrain Victorious fighting behind for fifth, 2 seconds later. When all of the seconds were counted, Ayuso took the leaders jersey and now holds 37 seconds on Tiberi. Filippo Ganna of Ineos rode incredibly well in defense of his GC position and now sits third at 38 seconds.