ASCOLI PICENO, Italy—Swiss cyclist Gino Mäder won the sixth stage of the Giro d’Italia on Thursday for his first victory in a Grand Tour.
Attila Valter, meanwhile, took the leader’s pink jersey.
Mäder, who rides for Team Bahrain Victorious, was part of a quartet leading the race up the summit finish and the 24-year-old attacked with 3 kilometers remaining to cross the line 12 seconds ahead of his fellow escapees.
Egan Bernal was second, just ahead of Daniel Martin and Remco Evenepoel at the end of the sternest test yet of this year’s Giro.
There were three classified climbs along the 160-kilometer route from Grotte di Frasassi to Ascoli Piceno and the stage was made even trickier by the weather conditions, which were wet and cold.
Valter took over the lead from Alessandro De Marchi. The Hungarian cyclist has an 11-second lead over Evenepoel and 16 seconds ahead of Bernal—two of the favorites for the overall win.
The Giro finishes on May 30 in Milan with an individual time trial.
Dutch cyclist Tom Dumoulin, meanwhile, is returning to racing in June, six months after taking a break from the sport to consider his future.
The 30-year-old former time-trial world champion will begin his comeback at the Tour de Suisse on June 6, the Jumbo-Visma team said Thursday.
Dumoulin “also has the ambition to go to the Olympic Games in Tokyo,” the team said.
Dumoulin’s decision to return to the professional ranks came after he “recently found the joy in cycling again,” Jumbo-Visma said.
Dumoulin, a time-trial specialist who also is a strong multi-stage tour rider, won the 2017 Giro d’Italia and finished second in the Tour de France a year later. But he struggled with injuries in recent seasons and said when he announced his break from cycling in January that he also was weighed down by the pressure to perform.