Mads Pedersen completes Grand Tour grand slam at Giro

Denmark's Mads Pedersen won a sprint finish on stage six of the Giro d'Italia in Naples to complete the grand slam of Grand Tour victories. After the chaos of a crash-strewn stage five in wet conditions, the 162km around Mount Vesuvius and the Amalfi coast under sunny skies produced little drama until the closing moments when breakaway duo Alessandro De Marchi and Simon Clarke were finally reeled in. Veteran Australian Clarke and De Marchi had made their attack on the Picco Sant'Angelo climb, continuing to push on to stretch the advantage to more than two minutes heading into the final 30km.

The peloton, though, refused to give up the chase, with the sprinters eyeing a bunch finish as Alpecin-Deceuninck and Bora-Hansgrohe riders took up the pace. It had looked like Clarke and De Marchi would hold on, but they were eventually caught with just 200m left. Colombian Fernando Gaviria made a move for what would have been a first win on the Giro d'Italia for five years, but it was Pedersen who timed his charge to take victory in a bunch finish for Trek-Segafredo.

Jonathan Milan (Bahrain-Victorious) finished second with Pascal Ackermann (UAE Team Emirates) in third place. Mark Cavendish, who had slid across the finish line on his backside to take fourth place on Wednesday, was dropped on the first big climb. It later emerged Cavendish had crashed at the end of the longest descent of the day from Colle San Pietro, and is set to be checked out by Astana's team medical staff.

"It was a tough day for the team and it's nice to pay them back with a victory today," Pedersen, the 2019 world champion, told reporters after his stage win. "It was pretty close in the end. It was not easy to catch them for a long time.