Key Takeaways: 2025 Giro d'Italia Stage 6

Breaking down how a chaotic and dramatic stage was won & how the massive mid-race crash fundamentally alters the GC battle

Kaden Groves exploded from the peloton and past a fading Wout van Aert to win his first stage of this year’s Giro d’Italia in the famously hectic southern Italian metropolis of Naples. However, the story of the day wasn’t Groves perfectly navigating the final few hundred meters in one of Italy’s most vibrant and unpredictable cities to grab his ninth career Grand Tour stage win, but the mid-race crash on the soaking wet roads, which took down a vast portion of the peloton, led to a race stoppage and ultimately neutralized the day’s time gaps. While this meant the General Classification failed to change on the day, it brought down Richard Carapaz, Jay Vine, and Adam Yates and forced key support riders like Jai Hindley to abandon with injuries, meaning what was supposed to be a routine sprint stage significantly altered the future mountain stages and ensured the stage matched its dramatic surroundings along the undulating coastline of the Tyrrhenian Sea.

Stage Top Five:
1) Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck) +0
2) Milan Fretin (Cofidis) +0
3) Paul Magnier (Soudal Quick-Step) +0
4) Max Kanter (XDS Astana) +0
5) Giovanni Lonardi (Polti VisitMalta) +0

GC Top Five:
1) Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) +0
2) Primož Roglič (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) +17
3) Mathias Vacek (Lidl-Trek) +24
4) Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) +31
5) Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) +32

Stage 6 Race Notebook

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71km-to-go: With Visma-Lease a Bike controlling the gap to the breakaway (comprised of Taco van der Hoorn & Enzo Paleni), Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe’s Jai Hindley crashes on a wet and extremely slick stretch of road, while his crash-prone teammate Primož Roglič, riding directly next to Hindley, narrowly avoids going down. However, nearly everyone else behind Hindley crashes immediately after touching their brakes, creating a mass pileup that requires the race to be neutralized to attend to injured riders.

9.3km: After the race starts back up, the time gaps and sprint points are removed from the stage, meaning the peloton is reduced to just the riders contesting the stage (and without key riders like Mads Pedersen, who crashed hard). With the peloton having reduced firepower due to this, Van der Hoorn and Paleni are proving incredibly difficult to catch.

3.6km: While the gap isn’t coming down particularly fast, Alpecin-Deceuninck gets to the front with their full leadout train, which makes a massive dent in their lead.

3km: Unfortunately, a group of protestors kills any chance of breakaway success when they force the duo to come to a nearby stop to avoid being clothes-lined while the peloton closes in.

1.3km: Alpecin-Deceuninck’s Fabio Van den Bossche takes the final corner much faster than the rest of his team’s leadout.

1km: This creates a slightly awkward gap between the Alpecin leadout. Behind Van den Bossche, the rest of the train sits up slightly to force their rivals to either close the gap or, if they hesitate, allow their teammate to ride clear (this is what Visma should have done against Neilson Powless in the final turn at Dwars).

900m: Wout van Aert takes advantage of the slowing pace by pulling his sprinter, Olav Kooij, from deep in the field to the front, but, when he gets there, he simply keeps going, likely expecting Kooij to follow him. But, instead, Kooij stays put in the group.

500m: With Van Aert on the loose, the other sprint teams organize to reel him in, which still benefits Kooij since he can sit in the wheels behind.

200m: When a fading Van Aert is reeled in, Kaden Groves drifts to the opposite side of the road from the group to get into Van Aert’s slipstream, while Kooij stays tucked near the barriers.

150m: This move allows Groves to slingshot out of Van Aert’s slipstream and get a wide open path to the finish line, while his main rival, Kooij, is pinned up against the barriers by Matteo Moschetti.

100m: With Moschetti continuing to push Kooij into the barriers (he would later be relegated), Groves flies around the group on the other side of the road.

Finish: With far superior speed to the rest of the non-Kooij sprinters, Groves leverages his clean run to the line to easily hold off the rest, while Cofidis’ Milan Fretin finishes second with Paul Magnier in third.

Three Key Takeaways