Stage 6 is one of those traditional long Giro stages. With 218 km the last 30 km are flat so a sprint finish is expected. Can anyone can the better of Kemboi today? There are also 16 KOM points on offer and we could see a change in the classification.
Today's battle to get in the breakaway is started by Beniusis and Kruijswijk.
The likes of Pelikan, Schomber and Filutas are trying to get up the road as well. But we've seen this story before. All they end up doing is reeling the others back in as the peloton does not want large numbers in the breakaway.
van Zyl who is a strong all round rouleur manages to breakaway in a solo effort. He is later joined by Pelikan and Sergent.
The 3 riders open a 2'33'' gap as they start to approach the category 2 climb which gives 10 points to the winner.
van Zyl shows he is the best climber in this trio to take maximum points ahead of Pelikan and Sergent. We later get word that Buchmann and Peters fought for the remaining points which makes the latter the virtual leader now.
The breakaway passed the intermediate sprint with a 3 minute advantage. Pelikan won the sprint ahead of van Zyl and Sergent. Of more interest was the battle for the remaining 3 pts. Eislers and Kragh Andersen picked up those.
62 km of the race remaining the teams working on the flat rated stage are again Evonik, Farfetch and Huski.
The three breakaway riders make it to the category 3 climb as well this time and van Zyl locks up the maglia azzurra for tomorrow. 43 km to go the peloton are 1'41'' behind.
On point the peloton completes the catch of the breakaway with 13 km to go. It's flat from here apart from the final kilometer with a false flat finish.
Some decent organization from the sprinter's teams today. This is the layout with 3 km to go:
Stoltz
Goldstein
Soulious
Chavanne
Van Poppel
Bettiol
Dzamastagic
Guerao
Kemboi
Eislers
Moser
Petit
Enger
Kragh Andersen
Minali
After the final left hand turn with 1.8 km to go we see Kemboi's train has lost the front position. Goldstein still upfront for Van Poppel and Eislers still has his two leadouts ahead of him. Enger and Moser have made the cut and are in a nice position. There are a few bike lengths gap to some of the other sprinters behind.
Dzamastagic now doing his leadout for Eislers. Van Poppel has taken his wheel while Petit out of position has started his sprint early.
Eislers launches his sprint now with 800 to go. Van Poppel trying to pass him. On the other side we see Kemboi is leaving his sprint late and still has Bettiol ahead of him.
300 m to go and Petit who's been in the wind for a while now is still going strong. Eislers now has Guerao, Moser, Van Poppel and Kragh Andersen to his right trying to overtake him. Kemboi now sprinting on the far side. There is a small uphill 1-1.5% gradient on this final kilometer.
It looks like Kemboi has done it again!? Perfect timing for another stage victory!
No wait? It's not Kemboi, Kragh Andersen is the winner according to the judges! Kemboi 2nd and Moser 3rd. Fantastic result from the wildcard team.
Contreras and Minali finish strong for 4th and 5th. As does Yates in 6th, we're not used to seeing the maglia azzurra competing in bunch sprints. Eislers with another disappointing day in 7th. 8th goes to Enger, Palyi 9th and Van Poppel 10th.
The GC doesn't change much ahead of the mountain stage with Dennis remaining in pink. Kemboi extends his lead over Yates in the points classification. Then two Xero jersey wearers with van Zyl as the KOM leader and Areruya best young rider.
Giro d'Italia - Stage 6 
