When it became clear that the Maglia Rosa would be up for grabs, Michal Golas (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) did all he could to try and grab a career-best result.
At the end of stage six, the Polish rider had to settle for third on the line and second place overall, as Miguel Angel Rubiano (Androni Giocattoli-Venezuela) took the stage and Adriano Malori (Lampre-ISD) slipped into pink.
Initially, Golas was disappointed with being unable to pull any rewards from the stage, but he had taken in the result and put it in a positive light in his comments after the stage.
“After the race I was really disappointed,” he admitted. “Now I've realized that I did a great race. I was so close to the pink jersey that I don't want to give up. Tomorrow I will do my best to get another good result for me and for the team.”
Golas got away early with a 15-man breakaway on a day that would ravage the peloton with deceptive and endless punchy hills. The break was eventually whittled down to five, including Golas, Malori, Rubiano, Alexsandr Dyachenko (Astana) and Cesare Benedetti (Team NetApp). Knowing they were fighting for the pink jersey, Golas tried to crack Malori, but was unable to after the tough day out front.
“The breakaway began after only 10 kilometers,” Golas stated. “This morning in the team meeting we decided to attack immediately. The parcours was really, really hard and in the front group, we lost some guys along the road. At the end there were only five of us.
“I knew that in the final it would have been a fight with Malori for the pink jersey. I tried to pull as much as I could. I tried to drop him but we were at the same level, there were no big difference between us. At 15 kilometers to go I also had a flat tire and I had to change bikes and then chase [back on]. I couldn't do more than that, really.”
Omega Pharma-Quick Step team manager Davide Bramati was pleased with the way his team rode, most notably Golas, a new face on the revamped team, in after two years at Vacansoleil-DCM.
“Michal did his best today. We knew that we should have to attack Malori to take the jersey, but everybody was at the limit in the last kilometers,” Bramati said. “It was a really hard stage, it was really hot and the riders used a 28 gear. In general the team was really strong. Now we are second in the GC and second in the white jersey classification. We will try again in the next stages."
Stage seven brings 206 kilometers and more undulation, even more than stage six, and includes an uphill finish to Rocca di Cambio.