Etixx - Quick-Step rider Rigoberto Uran's GC position remained the same after a reduced group arrival at the end of 210km Tirreno-Adriatico Stage 6 from Rieti to Porto Sant'Elpidio on Monday. Stage 6 was the second straight stage affected by tough weather conditions. This time, instead of snow as there was on the Terminillo finale on Sunday, there was plenty of rain and cold.
Peter Sagan (Tinkoff-Saxo) won the stage after a lone escapee was caught with 3.3km to go. Gerald Ciolek (MTN - Qhubeka) was 2nd, and Jens Debusschere (Lotto Soudal) finished 3rd.
The peloton eventually split during the stage and the gap only expanded with a combination of weather conditions, and the lone GPM of the day (Montelparo). The second bunch included Mark Cavendish, Zdenek Stybar, Mark Renshaw, Niki Terpstra, and Fabio Sabatini. The group, which included several other key sprinters, never regained contact and had more than five minutes of a gap inside 30km to go to the front group. The five riders of Etixx - Quick-Step withdrew from the race.
Uran, Gianluca Brambilla, and Julien Vermote were present in the main group in the final kilometers.
Uran remains 48" down on Nairo Quintana (Movistar) in the overall classification. Bauke Mollema (Trek Factory Racing) remains in 2nd, 39" down.
Uran will do his best to move up in the classification at the final, flat time trial on Tuesday, which is 10km in San Benedetto del Tronto.
"I saw straight from the start that Mark wasn't good today," Sport Director Brian Holm said. "He didn't feel well and he lost contact quite early when the bunch wasn't really going fast. We asked Sabatini, Terpstra, Renshaw, and Stybar to wait for him to eventually try to close the gap if he should get better during the stage, but it didn't happen. At that point it was a wise decision to stop racing instead of doing 2 laps in the final local circuit under the rain. Milano-Sanremo is in a few days, so we didn't want to take the risk to have any sick riders before a big appointment, which is this upcoming Sunday."
