Francisco Ventoso wins sixth stage of Giro d’ltalia: Cycling News
Francisco Ventoso earned the biggest victory of his career after winning the sixth stage of Giro d’ltalia, Tour of Italy cycling race on Thursday.
The race started in Orvieto and ended at Fiuggi. Ventoso took a total of 5 hours, 15 minutes and 39 seconds to cover the distance of 216 kilometres.
It was a lengthy and exhilarating stage for the riders, but Ventoso maintained his speed and composure to the last sprint of the race and ultimately gained victory.
The second stage winner Alessandro Petacchi showed his good performance in the stage, but just before the finish line, suddenly stopped pedalling and Ventoso cross the line without any difficulty.
Stage winner Ventoso said, "Danilo [Di Luca] went out with 150 to 100 meters to go and I just tried to stay with him. Petacchi then tried to pass me, but he couldn't keep up."
Roberto Ferrari finished third while Danilo Di Luca was also in good from and in the last one kilometre climb, Di Luca had an attack before being caught by the peloton.
Petacchi admitted, "Danilo Di Luca accelerated very strong in the final kilometre. I took off in pursuit and I let Ventoso overtake me on purpose. But in the end I found myself 'dry'. I couldn't overtake him. I hoped he'd weaken but with 40 metres to go
I knew”
After nine kilometres of the race, the group of five riders Kristof Vandewalle, Jussi Veikkanen, Sacha Modolo, Frederik Veuchelen, and Yaroslav Popovych made first breakaway. All of them built advantage of six minutes over peloton.
With 43 kilometres remaining, Sacha Modolo was dropped the climb and break was still led by 1 minute and 30 seconds at the nine-mile mark.
With five miles to go, Belgian Vandewalle was alone, but he crossed the group less than one mile. In the Di Luca was tried to cross the two riders Petacchi and Ventoso, but he cannot control the situation and Ventonso maintain his speed and cross the finish
line ahead of Petacchi.
The fifth stage winner Pieter Weening of the Rabobank Cycling team was took a lead in overall classification with timing of 20 hours, 15 minutes and 12 seconds. Kanstantsin Sivtsov was in second place with 2 seconds behind Pieter.
Marco Pinotti was in the third spot while Christophe Le Mevel finished fourth with five seconds behind Pieter.
The next stage will start in Maddaloni and end in Montevergine di Mercogliano. All the riders will cover the distance of 110 kilometres during the stage.
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