The first of three mountain top finishes ended with a two-up sprint to the line and Giulio Ciccone back fighting at the front of a race.
The Italian, who has already finished fourth on both Stage 2 and 3 of the Critérium du Dauphiné, proved that his comeback is well and truly on the right track as he climbed to second on Stage 6.
Ciccone made a call on the radio approaching the final climb to say that he was feeling good and it wasn’t long before Mads Pedersen hit the front of the bunch to start pushing the pace to help catch the remaining breakaway riders.
The bunch began to shrink quickly and the gradients rose towards the finish but Ciccone held his position at the front of the field, staying calm when the first attacks were made before launching his own.
In the end, it was just Ciccone left battling it out with the Bora-Hansgrohe duo of Primož Roglič and Alexandr Vlasov with the Slovenian able to get the better of the Lidl-Trek rider in just the final 100 meters of the stage to get the win.
#Dauphiné How great to see @giuliocicco1 fighting for the win 🤩 He has to settle for second today, but our Cicco is back! pic.twitter.com/VnRqKIwcDE
— Lidl-Trek (@LidlTrek) June 7, 2024
Giulio’s post-race reaction:
“I said I had a good feeling and then he [Mads Pedersen] did everything perfect so, I need to say a big thanks for the effort. But what else can I say? Nothing. Roglič won and I tried to do my best. My feeling was good so I can be happy. I tried to follow him [Roglič] two times and it was a really fast pace and then we found Vlasov, who was in the front, and he just continued with a hard tempo so I was already a bit on the limit when he started his sprint but, I am, overall, happy with this result.”
