Miguel Rubiano of Androni-Giocattoli attacked from the breakaway and stayed away to win the long and lumpy Stage Six of the Giro d'Italia. Rubiano attacked on the final climb of the 207-km stage, coming within 30 seconds of capturing the leader’s pink jersey as well.
“At first I was just aiming for the mountain points, but then when I heard how far behind the group was I decided to take a risk and try a breakaway, and it went well,” Rubiano told cyclingnews.com after the race.
Lampre’s Adriano Malori, also riding in the break, took the maglia rosa from Garmin-Barracuda’s Ramunas Navardauskas. Garmin didn’t really defend the jersey; the team mounted a half-hearted chase ion the final 10 km but it was already far too late.
Not many teams were willing to chase early on, because almost every team had a rider in the break. Garmin had Jack Bauer; they weren’t interested in pushing hard until he faded on the final climb. The team did
Likely no team was really eager to win the maglia rosa, and the responsibility to defend it, this early in the race. Liquigas, which didn’t have a rider in the break, did most of the driving, but without much urgency.
A 15-rider break—Miguel Rubiano (Androni-Giocattoli,) Adriano Malori (Lampre,) Alexsandr Dyachenko (Astana,) Manuel Belletti (Ag2R,) Alfredo Balloni (Farnese Vini,) Dominique Rollin (FDJ-BigMat,) Jack Bauer (Garmin-Barracuda,) Aliaksandr Kuchynski (Katusha,) Jens Keukeleire (Orica-GreenEdge,) Gatis Smukulis (Katusha,) Pablo Lastras (Movistar,) Michal Golas (Omega Pharma-QuickStep,) Dennis Van Winden (Rabobank,) Cesare Benedetti (NetApp,) and Luke Roberts (Saxo Bank)— got started after about 30 kilometers of racing, shrinking to 11 within forty kilometers as Balloni, Van Winden, Belletti and Keukeleire dropped off.
The remaining eleven went over the first two climbs—the Cat 3 Cingoli (6.4 km at6.5% avg. 13% max) and the Cat 2 Passo della Cappella (4.5 km at 7.7% avg. 16% max) without incident; then Pablo Lastras and Jack Bauer crashed on the descent of the second climb. Lastras had to withdraw with collarbone, shoulderblade, and rib injuries.
Androni’s Miguel Rubiano attacked at the top of the climbs to collect King of the Mountain points; he lost out the first time to Michal Golas, but took the rest, staying away just a little longer after every peak.
The break crested the Cat 3 Montelupone (4.6 kms at 4.4%, 15% max) together, but an attack by Adriano Malori split the group on the road to the Cat 3 Montegranaro (1.2 km at 13.8%, 18% max.) Rubiano attacked next, and had a gap of 45 seconds over Malori, Golas, Dyachenko, and Benedetti over the crest.
The climbing over, Rubiano stayed away for the rest of the stage while the four chasers did their best to both run him down and keep ahead of the peloton.
| Giro d'Italia Stage Six | |||
|
| rider | team | time |
| 1 | Miguel Rubiano | Androni Giocattoli | 5:38:30 |
| 2 | Adriano Malori | Lampre | 0:01:10 |
| 3 | Michal Golas | Omega Pharma-Quickstep |
|
| 4 | Alexsandr Dyachenko | Astana |
|
| 5 | Cesare Benedetti | Team NetApp |
|
| 6 | Daryl Impey | Orica GreenEdge | 0:01:51 |
| 7 | Filippo Pozzato | Farnese Vini |
|
| 8 | Fabio Sabatini (Ita) | Liquigas |
|
| 9 | Francisco José Ventoso | Movistar |
|
| 10 | Michal Kwiatkowski | Omega Pharma-Quickstep |
|
| General Classification after Stage Six | |||
|
| rider | team | time |
| 1 | Adriano Malori | Lampre | 20:25:28 |
| 2 | Michal Golas | Omega Pharma-Quickstep | 0:00:15 |
| 3 | Ryder Hesjedal | Garmin-Barracuda | 0:00:17 |
| 4 | Miguel Rubiano | Androni Giocattoli | 0:00:30 |
| 5 | Christian Vande Velde | Garmin – Barracuda | 0:00:32 |
| 6 | Joaquim Rodriguez | Katusha | 0:00:36 |
| 7 | Peter Stetina | Garmin-Barracuda | 0:00:37 |
| 8 | Daniel Moreno | Katusha | 0:00:39 |
| 9 | Enrico Gasparotto | Astana | 10 |
| 10 | Luke Roberts | Saxo Bank | 0:00:41 |
