Giro d’Italia 2015: Stage 6 Preview

Stage 6: Montecatini Terme › Castiglione della Pescaia – 183km

Following two days of GC action and breakaway success (Jan Polanc won Stage 5 with a long-range move), the peloton will return to mostly flat roads for what should be a day for the sprinters.

Stage 6 opens and closes with long flat sections, with a bit of climbing (a single Cat. 4 and several uncategorized bumps) in between. It’s hard to see anything other than a bunch sprint for victory here. The finale involves a few corners and roundabouts but the last kilometer is basically a straightaway perfectly tailored for a drag race.

Unlike last year’s Giro, the 2015 edition of the Tour of Italy is lacking a dominant sprinter, but there are several very strong quick men who should battle it out for the win.

André Greipel, at his best, should be faster than the field. But he’s looked a bit below his best so far. He’s also somewhat inconsistent, and not prone to take control of all of a race’s sprint stages, even though he can beat the world’s best on a good day. On Stage 2, he opened up his sprint too early and couldn’t sustain his power on the slight incline to the line. Here, he’ll try to time things better, and prove that he’s still got what it takes to be the top favorite for this sort of profile.

Elia Viviani timed things just right on Stage 2, taking a victory on the day, and he’s worn the red jersey ever since. He lacks the level of leadout support that some of his rivals enjoy, but as I already pointed out in the Stage 2 preview when talking up his chances, I tend to think the necessity of a strong leadout is overstated by many observers. A fast rider with positioning savvy can win a sprint without much help, and Viviani has a great chance to do that again on Stage 6. Like Greipel, though he tends to have good and bad days, so it will be interesting to see if he’s still at the same level in this sprint that he was showing off on the second day of the race.

Giacomo Nizzolo has great top-end speed and will love the long, straight finale. He sometimes struggles when timing a jump coming out of a corner is required (even though he is a good bike handler), so he’ll be happy to focus more on the matter of getting up to blazing speed here in this probable sprint finish.

Sacha Modolo has beaten Mark Cavendish more than once in a bunch kick. It’s a bit hard to predict how he’ll do because he can go from hot to cold very quickly, but he seems to be pretty fast right now (he took a nice stage win in Turkey) and like Greipel and Viviani, if he’s on a good day he can be pretty hard to beat.

Moreno Hofland took 2nd on Stage 2 of this race somewhat surprisingly. He’s had big results in the past but against this company and in this big of a race, I didn’t expect him to come so close to the win. He tends to appreciate the slight gradients at the line (which this stage lacks) but he’ll still be dangerous.

Luka Mezgec was 4th on Stage 2 and has the always impressive Giant-Alpecin to set him up nicely coming into the final straightaway. The winner of last year’s final Giro d’Italia stage should be in the mix with the other favorites again.

Michael Matthews may have lost the pink jersey on the road to Abetone, but he’ll have plenty more opportunities for wins in this race, including here in this Stage 6. People often say that Matthews is “not a sprinter” because of his versatility, but in the same way that they’ll say that about Peter Sagan (who just beat Mark Cavendish in a Tour of California sprint) as well, that undermines the amazing finishing kick he does have. He’s capable of winning a bunch sprint if everything goes his way.

Juan José Lobato, Matteo Pelucchi, Tom Boonen, Nicola Ruffoni, and Alessandro Petacchi are others to watch in the field sprint likely to close out Stage 6.

VeloHuman Stage 6 Favorites

1. André Greipel | 2. Elia Viviani | 3. Giacomo Nizzolo

Be sure to follow @VeloHuman on Twitter for more race analysis, and remember to check back after the conclusion of Stage 6 for the preview of the next stage.

-Dane Cash