Despite being small and tiny, Jarno Widar is the giant of the peloton. Winning in the Maglia Rosa is never a trivial matter, and even more so after the 172 kilometres and 3200 metres of elevation gain of Stage 6 of the Giro Next Gen 2024. Widar managed it, despite admitting that he did not feel great today, or at least not as good as he did in Pian della Mussa, where he “showed the best version of himself”.
The young Belgian was able to resist the forcing of Mathys Rondel (Tudor) before delivering another burst in the last kilometre of the climb to Fosse. Everyone was exhausted, between attacks and counter-attacks the first hour of the race flew by at 53.8 km/h. Halfway up the last climb, after the work of his teammates, Rondel took the lead of the group and, with a remarkable pace, tried to break away from all his rivals.
And he almost succeeded, if it hadn’t been for three talented athletes who caught up with him not far from the finish: Widar himself, and the Spaniards Pablo Torres (UAE Team Emirates) and Pau Martí (Israel-PremierTech). All three eventually dropped him in the final kilometre. Widar cemented his lead while Rondel risked compromising his podium position, as Torres and Martí made up 13″ plus time bonuses, with the former leaping to second overall and the latter matching him with exactly the same time.
There are unlikely to be any changes in the general classification in the last two days, as Widar himself admits, but woe betide anyone who lets his guard down. All it takes is one bad day or one crash, as happened today to Wouter Toussaint (Wanty-ReUz-Technord). The second, third and fourth, Torres, Rondel and Martí, are all within 6 seconds of each other, thus great tussle for the second and third step of the podium is highly probable
