The bustling port city of Naples in Southern Italy is known for its pandemonium. Some love the sticky density of the population, the frenzy of the traffic and the mayhem of street vendors. Others flee to the tranquil Amalfi coast and serenity of the surrounding islands as quickly as possible, seeking sunshine and solace, away from toots of car horns and shouts of ‘arrivederci!’ Each year when the Giro d’Italia comes to visit Napoli, there’s a sense of chaos and anticipation in the air – winding busy roads and packed crowds can cause commotion in a bike race.
When the rain falls, the risks are only exacerbated. The greasy Italian tarmac becomes slick with a layer of moisture in a way which means even a feathering of the brakes can cause a rider’s wheels to slide out from underneath them. There was an overwhelming feeling of dread when spots of rain appeared on the TV cameras filming stage six of 2025’s Giro d’Italia, so when the moment of the crash came, with just over 60 kilometres of racing, it was of little surprise. A simple touch of wheels at the front of the bunch, a miscalculation from a rider in the Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe train, was the catalyst for the carnage. The riders fell like dominoes, so many that the race ended up being stopped by organisers as ambulances tended to the wounded. Naples had caused the havoc it threatened.
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At the front of the peloton, riders gestured fervently to commissaires, calling for measures to be taken in the name of rider safety, and the eventual decision – after much deliberation – was to neutralise both the general classification and the points jersey competition for the rest of the stage. Did it make sense that it would be safe to sprint for the stage win but not for maglia ciclamino points? Not really, but nothing about stage six of the Giro d’Italia really added up.
When things start to go a little bit mental in a bike race, the default reaction from teams and the instruction from their sports directors is usually four words only: “stay at the front”. It’s basic logic: the fewer riders there are in front of you, the less chance there is that you will be caught behind an incident. Once stage six was restarted, this was the play from the majority of the peloton; they fought for position to keep safe at the head of the race. Even though the general classification was neutralised, no one wants to crash still with over two weeks of a Grand Tour remaining.
As the kilometres ticked down and the finish line came closer – no doubt to the relief of the majority of the riders in the bunch today – the pressure came closer to boiling point for those who still fancied their chances of a stage victory. The finish was technical, and the streets were lined with spectators, some of whom even added to the madness of an already chaotic finale by running into the road in front of the peloton, attempting to show a banner and endangering the riders in the bunch before being moved out of the way by other fans.
"It's a shame people went into the road in the final," Picnic PostNL's Casper van Uden told TNT Sports post-stage. "I reckon if you like sport and you want to watch, you should watch, but running in front of a peloton that goes 60 kilometres an hour is maybe not the best idea.”
It was head-scrambling to try and assess the events of stage six as a fan watching on television and seemingly just as difficult for those competing in the race itself, something that was evident in the tactics of a certain Visma-Lease a Bike rider in the finale. Wout van Aert, who would have been expected to do a lead-out for maglia ciclamino wearer Olav Kooij, took a flyer in the final kilometre before the line, leaving his sprinter to fend for himself in the finale. The Belgian rider admitted he’d made a miscalculation when he made his surprising move: "That was a mistake,” Van Aert said after the stage. “I thought we were closer to the finish and I could have held back and brought Olav closer at the last moment.” Don’t worry Wout, we weren't sure what was going on either.
One man who did manage to maintain impressive clarity and emerge from the disarray with the sort of speed which gave him a stage win by over two bike lengths was Alpecin-Deceuninck’s Kaden Groves. The Australian rider shot like a rocket from a reduced peloton that would have been glad to see the back of stage six to take his first victory of the season.
“With the wet roads, they're quite slippery. Knowing that the cobbles started with two kilometres to go, we knew it was super important to be in front. We also needed to lead the chase and close down the breakaway. I still had two teammates for the finish and they did a super job,” Groves grinned through his grit-stained face after the race.
The 227 kilometres of disorder which made up stage six of this year’s Giro d’Italia was somehow muddled through with the beautiful chaos that only this race can create – a reminder that La Corsa Rosa can both break hearts and realise dreams. As the evening closes in on Southern Italy, the tarmac dries out, bikes are repaired and road rash is washed and dressed, many will be happy to head into the mountains and leave the frenzy of Napoli in the past as the race rolls on. Some days are best forgotten.
