Some answers, but more questions as Wellens wins, Dumoulin gains and Nibali struggles

I said yesterday that the first summit finish of any Grand Tour is exciting because it starts to give you some answers on how the race going forward might unfold, what I failed to mention was that often a whole set of new questions arise in the place of those answers. Today's stage was no different.

We got answers like: Tom Dumoulin has his climbing legs, Vincenzo Nibali has yet to peak and that this first Grand tour stage win by Tim Wellens will not be his only Grand Tour stage win for a young rider who appears to have a real gift for picking off race wins following his victory at the GP Cycliste de Montreal last year and stage of Paris-Nice this spring.

But while Wellens' victory was perfectly played and a fine performance, all eyes were on the men several minutes further down the road, racing hard, not in a bid to catch him, but to try hurt one another. And the winner proved to be Dumoulin, but the questions that arose:


Can Nibali come good? Is Landa in trouble? Will Nibali's team-mate Jakob Fuglsang, who finished second to Wellens and who is now second overall, willing to assume the team lead and race the Italian? Is Ilnur Zakarin, third on the stage and now third overall, a GC contender to win this race? Is Dumoulin bluffing by continuing to claim he isn't in the GC hunt for the long haul? And, is the race leading Dutchman likely to put another couple of minutes into his rivals come Sunday's time-trial?

And that in many ways is the joy of Grand Tours. The answers you get on one stage coinciding with the questions that are also thrown up. And the better the Grand Tour the more questions you find yourself asking for longer in to the race.

As for on the stage itself, I suppose the biggest story was the flawed attack by Nibali. He roared out of the pack after his team-mate Fuglsang who several kilometres before had launched his own move, and it was Dumoulin of all people who went after the Shark. The cameras then cut away to Wellens but when they returned, Dumoulin was back with the reducing pack, or at least, that is how it looked. In reality the pack had bridged across to Dumoulin and in doing so had gone past Nibali who was now in a spot of bother.

The tactic of course had been for Nibali to bridge to Fuglsang but all it served to do was pull the rest across to the Dane while Nibali fell away. You'd have thought in knowing how close he was to the limit, Nibali might have cancelled the plan and potentially postponed any chance of Fuglsang, but then again he might also have felt if he was close to his limit, then so must everyone else. They weren't however.

It was only seconds that were won and lost with Nibali coming in 21sec behind the pink jersey, but contrary to whatever Ryder Hesjedal is telling us about the insignificance of losing a few seconds a few days ago, seconds can count. Especially with this long time-trial coming up.

As things now stand, Dumoulin holds a 26sec lead on Fuglsang; 41sec on Alejandro Valverde who trailed in toward the back of the ones and twos crossing the line behind Fuglsang but ahead of Nibali; and 47sec up on Nibali. Mikel Landa who finished with Nibali now sits at 1min 8sec. It couldn't be going better for the big Dutchman.

And what this all means is that come Sunday evening and the finish of the lengthy 40.5km individual time-trial, Dumoulin might well find himself more than two minutes to the good overall and on some rivals, more than three minutes up. That will surely change his desires on the general classification if, of course, his desires were ever anything but winning this Giro.

2016 Giro d'Italia, stage 6 result:

1. Tim Wellens (Lotto Soudal) 2. Jakob Fuglsang (Astana) 3. Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha) 4. Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin) 5. Kanstantsin Siutsou (Dimension Data) 6. Domenico Pozzovivo (AG2R La Mondiale) Others: 10. Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) 14. Mikel Landa (Sky) 15. Ryder Hesjedal (Trek-Segafredo) 17. Vincenzo Nibali (Astana)

in 4h 40' 05" @ 1' 19" s.t. @ 1' 22" @ 1' 24" s.t. @ 1' 36" @ 1' 43" both s.t.

General classification after stage 6:

1. Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin) 2. Jakob Fuglsang (Astana) 3. Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha) 4. Bob Jungels (Etixx - Quick Step) 5. Steven Kruijswijk (LottoNL-Jumbo) 6. Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) Others: 9. Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) 15. Mikel Landa (Sky) 21. Ryder Hesjedal (Trek-Segafredo)

in 24h 22' 15" @ 26" @ 28" @ 35" @ 38" @ 41" @ 47" @ 1' 08" @ 1' 38"