Andre Greipel (Lotto-Soudal) has won Stage 6 of the Giro d’Italia, The Gorilla, as he is nicknamed, took a bunch sprint to win the mainly flat, 183-km run from Montecatini Terme to Castiglione della Pescaia in 4:19:42. Matteo Pelucchi (IAM Cycling) and Sacha Modolo (Lampre-Merida) finished second and third, respectively. Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo Bank) remains the maglia rosa.

Alan Marangoni (Cannondale-Garmin), Marek Rutkiewicz (CCC Sprandi-Polkowice), Marco Bandiera (Androni-Sidermec), and Alessandro Malaguti and Eduard Grosu (both from Nippo-Vini Fantini) formed the break of the day. The peloton kept the quintet on a short leash, and the break’s lead was never much bigger than four minutes.

Giant-Alpecin and Lotto-Soudal led the pursuit, which whittled the escapees’ advantage down to two minutes with 22 km remaining. Sky joined the two squads at the front, and the gap was narrowed to less than one minute with 17.5 km to go. The catch was made two and a half km later.

With three km left, Lotto-Soudal took command at the front. The Belgian squad beat back the challenges of Trek, Lampre-Merida, and Giant-Alpecin and shepherded Greipel into the last km. The German champion jumped into the lead and held off Pelecchi and Modolo to win.

Behind, all hell broke loose. A spectator reached over the barriers with a camera. Daniele Colli (Nippo-Vini Fantini) hit the camera and crashed, breaking an arm and abandoning. The cascade effect reached race leader Contador, who fell and suffered a dislocated left shoulder. He reset the shoulder and finished the stage, but he was unable to don the maglia rosa at the postrace podium ceremony. Contador intends to continue the race.

“I haven’t broken anything but I have suffered a dislocation of the left shoulder,” the Spaniard said. “The doctors have recommended that I immobilize my left arm during the evening and night, while I try to move it a bit with the help of my other arm to promote the movement of the shoulder. I will focus on this until tomorrow before the stage, where the doctors will come back to put on a layer of bandage for the race.

“I will try to start tomorrow on stage 7, as I have worked very hard ahead of the Giro. I will try to continue until the very last moment. I’m optimistic about the start tomorrow, but we have to wait until right before the start to see what happens and how serious the effect of the crash is.”

The maglia rosa’s misfortune overshadowed Greipel’s victory. The Lotto-Soudal man said that the team’s goal had been to win a stage and that he had gotten great support from his mates. "It wasn't easy for me after the hard start to the Giro, but this is what we were here for, to win a stage,” Greipel said. “I have to say thanks to my team. Sander Armee spent all day at the front. We said before the stage that we would have to keep close to the front on the final bends. Adam Hansen hit the front with 1.1km to go and really went for it. Then Greg Henderson took over from a long way out, with 600m to go. It's normally too far, but he kept it up, and we are very happy with this win."

In the overall, Contador leads Fabio Aru (Astana) by 0:02 and Richie Porte (Sky) by 0:20. Stage 7 will probably not change the standings. The rolling, 264-km ride from Grosseto to Fiuggi will be the longest stage in any 2015 grand tour. The finish will be slightly uphill, but it should suit riders such as Michael Matthews (Orica-GreenEdge) and Philippe Gilbert (BMC). Who will win? Check in at www.roadcycling.com and find out!