Mads Pedersen of Denmark won the sixth stage of the Giro d’Italia when the peloton caught a two-man escape as the finish line approached.

Pedersen won in a sprint after passing Australia’s Simon Clarke and Italy’s Alessandro de Marchi with approximately 250m to go.

Jonathan Milan of Italy finished second, with Pascal Ackermann of Germany finishing third in the 162km stage via Naples.

Andreas Leknessund of Norway maintained his overall lead throughout the race.

Pedersen, 27, has now won stages in three Tour de France races: the Vuelta a Espana, the Tour de France, and the Giro d’Italia.

“I’m rather pleased. “That’s why we came,” Pedersen explained.

“It was a difficult day for the team, and it’s nice to repay them with this win – a good day.”

“It was close in the end, but it was difficult to catch them for a long time.” We have to make advantage of everyone.

“I feel bad for those guys because they did so well, but I’m glad I got the win.”

Geraint Thomas of the United Kingdom suffered a bike problem with less than 12 kilometers to go but recovered to finish with the group and is sixth overall.

Mark Cavendish’s Astana team stated that he “crashed earlier in the stage at the end of the descent from Colle San Pietro” and that he will be evaluated by the team’s medical personnel.

Primoz Roglic of Slovenia, who also experienced a bike problem, is fifth.

Remco Evenepoel of Belgium, who crashed twice on stage five, finished in the peloton and is now second in the overall standings, 28 seconds behind Leknessund.

“It’s not nice, especially early in the Giro like this,” Evenepoel said prior to the start of the sixth stage on Thursday.