Pedersen wins stage six of Giro after duo caught 300m from finish

Mads Pedersen of Trek–Segafredo held his nerve to win stage six of the Giro d'Italia in the final sprint on Thursday after the peloton caught up with a breakaway duo of Simon Clarke and Alessandro De Marchi 300 metres from the finish.

After a rain-sodden stage five that was marred by crashes, including one caused by a dog, the 162-km sixth stage in Naples was a far more pleasant ride under blue skies with the sun beating down on the riders who were glad to have dry roads.

With 25 km left, the breakaway duo of Clarke (Israel–Premier Tech) and De Marchi (Jayco–AlUla) were more than two minutes ahead of the peloton, which launched its attack just in time to catch up on the final stretch.

As an exhausted Clarke and De Marchi gave way for the sprinters to take the stage, Pedersen held off Jonathan Milan, Pascal Ackermann, Kaden Groves and Fernando Gaviria to take victory.

"I'm pretty happy, it's what we came for. It's nice to have a victory now, it was a tough day for the team and it's nice to pay them back with a victory," Pedersen said.

"It was pretty close, it was not easy to catch them (Clarke and De Marchi) for a long time. They had a lead of two minutes and we had to use all the guys available, it wasn't easy.

"With 300 metres to go we caught them. I feel really sorry for those guys."

Andreas Leknessund of Team DSM retained the leader's maglia rosa jersey with a 28-second lead over pre-race favourite Remco Evenepoel of Soudal Quick-Step.

Clarke, 36, said it was "devastating" to miss out on a victory after he was caught with the finish line in sight.

"It's not nice to lose in that way... I'd probably prefer to be caught with 10 km to go rather than 200 metres. You can't win them all, but if you don't try then you never know.