DAVIDE BALLERINI DODGED a mass of crashes on the final corner on slick Naples cobbles to win stage six of the Giro d’Italia as overall leader Afonso Eulalio finished safely in the peloton.

As sprinters, jockeying for position for the final run to the line, went tumbling in a series of crashes, Ballerini and Jasper Stuyven emerged upright and alone.

The pair surged for line and the XDS Astana man held off the Belgian Soudal Quick-Step rider who had been leading out team-mate Paul Maginer.

“When we arrived at the last corner, I saw the first guys had crashed,” said Ballerini.

“I just exited from the corner and I heard on the radio ‘Go! Go! Go! To the finish! To the finish! There’s a gap’.

“I was just hoping the line was coming really fast and I made it. I’m really happy.”

It was the 31-year-old Italian’s first Grand Tour stage victory.

“Finally. I was hoping to win one stage on the Giro but it was not the plan today,” he said, adding he was at the front to lead out Astana sprinter Matteo Malucelli.

“In cycling, there is always some problems and when you don’t expect the results, the win comes.”

At the end of a rare flat stage, the sprinters had been eyeing their chances but also the clouds, afraid more rain could turn the cobbled finish into a repeat of last year’s wet and chaotic sixth stage, also into Naples, when racing was neutralised for 20 kilometres after a mass crash 70km from the end.

While the rain largely held off, the final corner was slick from an earlier shower.

One of the sprint favourites, Jonathan Milan of Lidl-Trek, said the organisers had been asking for trouble.

“Luckily, I didn’t crash – I was able to stay on my bike. But they fully crashed in front of me – it wasn’t their fault, we knew that it could be super slippery if it rains on this kind of cobbles,” the Italian said.

“I really don’t get why we have to try to find these complicated finishes.

“We know it could rain, so why not just do a finish where it’s straight? But with two drops of water, we have a huge mess.

“It’s painful to see others sprint for the win and it’s painful to see other riders crash around you.”

- ‘So, so close’ -

Frenchman Magnier climbed back on his bike to grab third.

“So, so close…” he posted on social media after his team took second and third.

After a draining start to the Giro and with a tough weekend ahead, the peloton settled for an easy day in 142km run up the Tyrrhenian coast from Paestum.

The pack rolled through the stage in cool and mostly dry conditions, untroubled by any sustained breakaways, reaching the finish more than 35 minutes after the arrival time predicted by race organisers.

Portuguese rider Eulalio remains two minutes 51 seconds ahead of Spaniard Igor Arrieta.

Friday’s stage is a 244-kilometre run starting in Formia and ending with an infamous 7km climb to the Apennine peak of Blockhaus.

It will offer race favourite Jonas Vingegaard, who is six minutes, 22 secondsa off the lead, a chance make a move on Eulalio, himself a specialist climber.

– © AFP 2026