Giro d'Italia (st. 6)

Only long, flat stage so far in the race sees massive pile-up -with Visconti within those affected- splitting the bunch before another bunch sprint won by Cavendish

There isn’t a single moment of relax in the 2013 Giro d’Italia. The only stage in this year’s ‘Corsa Rosa’ without any dangerous moments was shaken with 30k from the finish by a massive crash in the front part of the group, just before the first of two laps to the final circuit in Margherita di Savoia, the end of a 169-kilometer parcours starting at Mola di Bari.

The incident, where Giovanni Visconti was one of the most affected with a hard blow in his right side, broke the peloton into several groups, leaving a 50-rider echelon at the front featuring Lastras, Dowsett and Ventoso, to which Movistar Team’s leader Beñat Intxausti bridged quickly. Herrada and Karpets came back shortly later, into a second peloton with Bradley Wiggins, and then Visconti, who needed attention from the race doctor and will undergo an X-ray later today to rule out any injuries, as well as Capecchi and Cobo, also involved in a crash few kilometers earlier.

With everything calm and back together, Briton Mark Cavendish (OPQ) took his second victory of the race at a dangerous, mass sprint that did not change the overall, with Paolini (KAT), Urán (SKY) and Beñat Intxausti -26 seconds behind the ‘maglia rosa’- in the first three positions. Stage seven on Friday will be a harder one: 176 kilometers from Marina di San Salvo to Pescara, with lots of ups and downs in its final 50k, including four categorized climbs.