Giro 2021 Favourites stage 6: Breakaway day, or GC clash

image: Cor VosThe 6th stage serves the first long finish climb on this year's Giro. So, are we to expect the first GC clash? Not necesarily. The route is challenging, but not extremely hard. So chances are that the breakaway will succeed. (Slideshow route/profile)

While taking in two huge climbs, the 6th stage features an elevation gain of 3,400 metres. The first big chunk is bitten out of it by the Forca di Gualdo. The 10.4 kilometres at 7.4% is located at the heart of the route. There is hardly a descent and 12 kilometres later the riders reach the Forca di Presta after a 6.2 kilometres climb at 3.7%.

The riders then fly down the Forca di Presta in a 40 kilometres descent to Ascoli Piceno. The village lies at the base of the San Giacomo finish climb, which is a 15.5 kilometres long test with an average gradient of 6.1%.

The big question is, are the GC riders ready to rumble? The route is demanding, but not extremely tough. Chances are that the breakaway will get some leeway and fight for the stage honours, yet, one never knows. You need only one GC rider who feels like testing his rivals and goes all out on the San Giacomo to write a different scenario.

Favourites 6th stage 2021 Giro d’Italia

*** Thomas De Gendt, Bauke Mollema, Felix Großschartner, Fausto Masnada
** Simon Yates, Daniel Martin, Egan Bernal, Remco Evenepoel, Aleksandr Vlasov
* Valerio Conti, Jefferson Cepeda, Harm Vanhoucke, Jonathan Caicedo, Gino Mäder

Another interesting read: route stage 6 Giro d’Italia 2021.