The general classification remained more or less the same in its upper echelon after the hilly stage five.
More climbs and another stage that went over the 200km barrier at Tirreno-Adriatico, where the riders finally had some sun, although only for a brief moment at the start of the stage, in Ascoli Piceno. As they left behind this small town, a breakaway formed and took their margin to almost six minutes, giving a bit of a headache to those in the bunch, who had to increase the speed in order to bring down that deficit to one minute with 30 kilometers to go.
Our team was in the spotlight in the final part of the stage, at first with Valentin Paret-Peintre – who did some long pulls at the front of the bunch – and later with Mattia Cattaneo. Fifth in the general classification, Cattaneo tried to take advantage of a moment of indecision in the peloton just as they had the last rider in the breakaway in their sight and launched one of his trademark seated acceleration.
A gap of ten meters quickly turned into one of 100 meters, but with the Italian being so well placed in the standings, the others immediately chased him down. Nevertheless, they couldn’t close down the gap to Fredrik Dversnes (Uno X-Mobility), and the Norwegian took the victory in Pergola. Landa finished the stage together with Cattaneo in the chasing group and jumped four places in the ranking, where he is now 16th, 26 seconds behind his Soudal Quick-Step teammate.
Photo credit: ©Tim De Waele / Getty Images
