Arnaud Démare (Groupama-FDJ) as taken a successive sprint victory at the Giro d'Italia today, when he just about beat Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal), with Mark Cavendish (QuickStep-Alpha Vinyl) taking 3rd.
While Cavendish once again got a perfect lead-out from Michael Mørkøv and hit the front early, like he had done to win on stage 3, this time his two rivals looked much faster.
Ewan got a clearer run at the line, in a headwind finish, than Démare, who had to thread his way through a number of riders before hitting the front. That meant the Frenchman was out of the wind until the last moment, when he pounced from behind Ewan and just beat him on the bike throw to claim stage 6.
Fernando Gaviria (UAE Team Emirates) once again crossed the line banging his handlebars in frustration, as he did yesterday when he was stuck in a lower gear and had to be content with 2nd place.
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Today the Colombian initially looked like he was taken out of the sprint by two Team DSM riders and he was furious it had denied him a chance to open up his sprint. On review of the footage it was clear Gaviria had tried to barge between the two DSM riders and he was relegated.
However, there was no arguing with the winner; Démare taking his second win in two days, and just his second of the season. He put in a perfect sprint after Cavendish, and arguably Ewan, hit the front too early into the headwind after 192km of racing into Scalea.
Cavendish's effort was hampered a little by movement at the front of the bunch deep into the finale when his team mate Bert Van Lerberghe was taken out of the team train by switching across the road by other riders.
More to come.
