Astana’s Felline sprints to 3rd place in Giro d’Italia Stage 6
NUR-SULTAN. KAZINFORM - After an amazing teamwork and a strong lead-out by Jakob Fuglsang, Fabio Felline sprints to a strong third place on day 6 of the Giro d`Italia. On the overall ranking was no change, the Danish rider still ranks on seventh place, Kazinform has learnt from the club’s press service.
It was a hilly start on the sixth stage of the Corsa Rosa with 188 undulating kilometers running to the finish line in Matera today. It was a day for plenty of attacks and at the end of the stage a course for the puncheurs or sprinters in the peloton.
Right after the start a quartet went up the road and opened up a gap of more than eight minutes, as the peloton took it quite easy at first.
Approaching the finale, the peloton increased the pace and with the gap dropping steadily it was all back together as the race headed into the final 15km of the day. It was a tough battle for position as many sprinter teams tried to bring their fast men into place. Astana Pro Team also did a stellar job in bringing Fabio Felline to the front. The Kazakh team led the race on the final kilometres of the day and showed tremendous teamwork.
In a messy sprint Fabio Felline stayed on the wheels of GC seventh Jakob Fuglsang, who led his teammate perfectly to the line. On the final meters Fabio Felline was overtaken by A. Demare and, only by millimeters, M. Matthews. It was a strong third place by the Italian Astana Pro Team rider after amazing teamwork.
«I am super happy, of course the stage win would have been nice but third place in a Grand Tour among strong sprinters makes me happy. The team did an amazing job, led me the whole last kilometres and brought me into position. Especially Jakob, it is an honor that the GC seventh was working for my sprint. Yesterday we stayed all together and tried to save energy and today I got the chance to try something. This result is something special for me as it shows me I can compete against the pure sprinters,» Fabio Felline
«It was an exciting finale, the team worked perfectly together and rode a good race on the last kilometers. They brought Fabio into a good position and he crossed the line in third place, among strong sprinters here. After many years of struggling, we see that Fabio is back again. It is a really good result and we are satisfied about it,» said Giuseppe Martinelli.
Tomorrow stage 7 will take the peloton over 143 flat kilometers from Matera to Brindisi.