Ventoso wins sixth Giro stage

Spain’s Francisco Ventoso won the sixth stage of the Giro d’Italia yesterday, while Dutch rider Pieter Weening of Rabobank held on to the overall leader’s pink jersey. Ventoso won a sprint finish on a slight hill ahead of Italy’s Alessandro Petacchi,...

Spain’s Francisco Ventoso won the sixth stage of the Giro d’Italia yesterday, while Dutch rider Pieter Weening of Rabobank held on to the overall leader’s pink jersey.

Ventoso won a sprint finish on a slight hill ahead of Italy’s Alessandro Petacchi, winner of Sunday’s second stage at Parma, after the 216km run around the Latium region of Rome.

It was the first Giro stage win for the 29-year-old Ventoso, who won the Paris-Brussels race last year, but his fifth success of the season.

Italy’s Roberto Ferrari finished third ahead of compatriot Danilo Di Luca, who had launched an attack on the final 1km climb before being caught.

Today’s seventh stage sees the riders head for the hills with a 110km run from Maddaloni to Montevergine di Mercogliano, in which the final 17.1km is at a five per cent gradient.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.