Stage winner Davide Ballerini: 'If I'd been going 0.2 km/h faster, I would have crashed too'

Stage six of the Giro d'Italia had many crashers, but only one winner: Davide Ballerini of XDS Astana. The Italian held his line on the inside of the final corner while the Unibet Rose Rockets riders went down and blocked the rest of the field. Ballerini made the most of his opportunity.

He wasn't even supposed to be the one sprinting, he admitted afterwards. "Our designated sprinter was Matteo Malucelli — but as we came through the last corner, I saw the two riders at the front go down." Malucelli also went to the ground behind them, but immediately grabbed his radio to urge Ballerini forward.

"I got the instruction over the radio: go, go, go all the way to the line, there's a gap. I was hoping the finish would come quickly, but it was still quite far and I was right at my limit," the XDS Astana rider said about those final uphill metres in Naples.

"I was lucky I didn't crash. I did take the risk," he said honestly. "If I'd been going 0.2 km/h faster, I would have crashed too. My rear wheel slipped for a moment, but I managed to stay upright."

"I knew this finish from previous editions — from the starts and finishes of earlier Giro stages in Naples. We all knew that a few drops of rain can make the roads very slippery here. But in a sprint, you have to switch off your brain, otherwise you'll never get through it," Ballerini explained.

Only Jasper Stuyven — Paul Magnier's lead-out man — followed Ballerini, but the Belgian couldn't close the gap. "I had hoped to win a stage at this Giro, but certainly not this one and certainly not in this way. Fortunately I got there."

"I've finally won a stage at the Giro d'Italia," said a proud Ballerini, riding his sixth edition at the age of 31. "This means a great deal to me — we work so hard for moments like this. The fact that it comes on the day you least expect it — that's what makes it beautiful."