Lara Gillespie misses chance after squeezed in Giro chaos - Video

Lara Gillespie gets the fluids in after the stage, where she finished 7th, making the best of the blows she took in the chaos of today's final (Photo: Facepeeters)

Lara Gillespie (UAE Team ADQ) looked well-placed to compete for the victory on Giro d'Italia stage 6 on Thursday, until a rapid-fire chain of events saw her squeezed out in the final 1.5km into Brescello.

As she was fighting to overcome a few banana skins thrown her way, Lidl Trek played a blinder in the technical final kilometre, helping deliver Elisa Balsamo, who took her fourth stage victory of the race.

Gillespie's team had initially looked strong on the front in the final. Italian champion, and 6th overall, Elisa Longo Borghini led the bunch passing the 3km to go marker.

She had a couple of her team mates on her wheel, with Gillespie in that line. The Irish rider was waiting for her chance to sprint, and possibly improve on her two 2nd places on stages 1 and 2.

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Italy’s Elisa Balsamo of Lidl-Trek has been perfecting her victory salute on Giro 2026 and got another chance to show it off today with her fourth win (Photo: Davide Spada)

However, just inside 1.5km to go, the Lidl Trek and Movistar teams surged forward, getting onto the front. And that pushed Gillespie and her team mates back a little.

Moments later, as the riders took a right hander, a couple of them overshot it and crashed at a small roundabout. And though Gillespie did not come down, that incident really stretched out the front of the main field, with some gaps opening.

Lidl Trek were on the front; Lucinda Brand drilling it through the 1km to go marker and through a series of late turns, with Balsamo right on her wheel.

Between being squeezed a little, and then the small gaps caused by the late crash, Gillespie had slipped back to between 20th and 15th wheel just before the sprint began.

That was far too much ground to make up, especially considering the front of the field was so strung out, to compete for the win or even a podium place.

Anna van der Breggen retained the maglia rosa today, ahead of a transitionary stage tomorrow and then a big weekend of climbing (Photo: Marco Alpozzi)

Maggie Coles-Lyster (Human Powered Health) pulled the trigger first in the sprint, but Balsamo was very quick to respond, making sure she led the way through the last bend.

The Italian rider sprinted in to win again, with Coles-Lyster in 2nd place and Georgia Baker (Liv AlUla Jayco) 3rd.

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Gillespie made quite a good go of the hand she was dealt, making up ground in the final 500m and getting up for 7th on the stage. It was just a shame she came off second best in the chaos of the final 1.5km.

There is no change in the overall, with Anna van der Breggen (Team SD Worx-Protime) still leading with three stages remaining, including the queen stage, over the Finestre and up to Sestriere, on Saturday.

The Dutch rider has exactly one minute over Demi Vollering (FDJ United Suez). Antonia Niedermaier (CANYON//SRAM) is 3rd at 1:24.

Tomorrow's stages 7 is an interesting one, taking the riders 159km from Sorbolo Mezzani to Salice Terme.

It features one climb, a long cat 3 - some 9km averaging 3.6 per cent gradient. And the final 17km, from the top of that climb to the finish, is all down hill.

It could possibly be a final where a versatile sprinter could get over the last climb and aim to take the stage victory, a la Balsamo on stage 3.

However, it's more likely the riders will be on the pedals on the climb, especially as the final 4.3km of that asecent averages 4.7 per cent.

If so, the field will explode and the fast descent to the finish will leave limited time to get back to the front in time for any sprint. If that is the case, it would mean today's stage 6 was the final chance for the sprinters, including Gillespie.

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