Sacha Modolo did a good sprint which netted him 3rd place in the 6th stage of the Giro d’Italia (Montecatini Terme-Castiglione della Pescaia, 183 km).

The course, with only one climb of 4th category (Pomarance) 93km from the finish, gave a good opportunity for the sprinters and they did not miss it, controlling the 4-rider breakaway that characterized the stage and neutralizing it in the final part of the race.

The sprint teams tried to keep their captains in the front positions. The Lampre-Merida trio Ferrari-Richeze-Modolo was involved in this hard battle and they succeeded in bringing Modolo onto Greipel’s wheel. The sprint of a German was too powerful for Modolo, who crossed the finish line in the 3rd position.

Slovenian Polanc detained the blue jersey as leader of the KOM classification and the whole Lampre-Merida received the award as Super Team. No blue-fuchsia-green rider got involved in the crash which occurred on the final straight.

“Greipel did an impressive sprint and I congratulate him. I thank my team mates for having dedicated their efforts to me, I would have liked to give them a top result, but I spent energy in the battle for the top position in the approach to the sprint,” Modolo said.

“Ferrari and Richeze helped me to be on the wheel of Greipel, but this means that we made two small sprints before reaching Andrè, who did a powerful sprint: I could only try to do the besy possible sprint. Anyway, the third place is fairly good, I’ll try to do better in the next stages.

“The sprints are becoming more and more risky because some riders who can’t rely on their team mates in the approach to the sprint, try to join the lead-out trains of the other teams. This is something that is not allowed by an unwritten law of the bunch but it’s also quite dangerous and it could cause crashes“.