For the fourth year in a row, the beautiful city of Naples is set to host a stage finish at the Giro d’Italia. This time, it’s the demanding Potenza–Napoli, a 227 km marathon – the longest stage of this year’s Corsa Rosa – that will light up the iconic Via Caracciolo seafront, now a familiar sight for cycling fans. This stage wraps up a trio of days that have smiled on the fast men, and once again, the sprinters will be eyeing their shot at glory.
The 227 km of Stage 6 will weigh heavily on the legs, even though only the first 145 km are hilly. After that, it’s a flat run all the way to the finish. The stage kicks off straight uphill toward the Valico di Monte Romito, followed by the main climb of the day: Valico di Monte Carruozzo (cat. 2, 19.9 km at 3.8%), crested after 57 km. From there, the peloton faces a rolling stretch through Irpinia, with the last climb coming at Monteforte Irpino (Category 3, 14.6 km at 2.2%), topped over 80 km from the line.
The final 45 km are entirely urban, a continuous sequence of towns with no real break in between. The road surface is generally good, though there are long stretches of porphyry cobbles in decent condition. Before reaching Naples, the route includes about 20 km of highway – setting the stage for a fast and technical run-in to the coast.
Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) took his first-ever Giro d’Italia stage win on this very finish line two years ago. No doubt he’ll be eyeing a repeat today—but unlike the earlier stages, it’ll be tough to shake off the pure sprinters this time. That puts the spotlight on names like Olav Kooij (Visma | Lease a Bike), Sam Bennett (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), Casper Van Uden (Picnic PostNL), Maikel Zijlaard (Tudor), Matteo Moschetti (Q36.5), Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck), and Paul Magnier (Soudal-QuickStep).
Potenza – Napoli
Length: 227 km
Elevation gain: 2,600 metres
Start: 11:30 a.m.
KM 0 (official start): 11:50 a.m.
Live coverage begins: 10:00 a.m.
Estimated finish: around 5:15 p.m.
