Attacking in the early miles of a Giro d'Italia stage doesn't seem to be hurting anyone's chances for a stage win this year.
For the second day in a row, a member of a nearly day-long breakaway won the 103-mile Stage 6 from Fidenza to Carrara.
Australian Matthew Lloyd of Omega Pharma-Lotto dropped his breakaway partner, Rubens Bertogliatia of the Androni Giocattoli cycling team, on the final climb and sailed across the finish line for a solo victory.
There was no change in the overall leaders, as Vincenzo Nibali of Liquigas Doimo retained his lead over Ivan Basso. The breakaway cyclists were about 11 minutes out of first place at the start of the day and didn't really gain that much in the overall contest.
Off the flats
Lloyd did move into first place in the mountains competition, however.
Friday's stage featured the first climb of the race, the Passo del Brattello. The peloton didn't threatened the breakaway on that climb, but a chase group did launch on the Spolverina, the second climb of the day.
Those three couldn't catch Lloyd and Bertogliatia, however, and were swallowed up by the peloton on a mass sprint at the finish, won by Lampre's Danilo Hondo, who officially finished in third place.
Saturday's 133-mile stage from Carrara to Montalcino passes through more hilly country. Stage 8 on Sunday is the first mountain stage, featuring a mountain-top finish at Monte Terminillo.
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