Pooley on top in Giro Rosa stage 6

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Emma Pooley was victorious in the sixth stage of the Giro Rosa. The rider for Lotto-Belisol arrived solo at the line in San Fior. Rabo-Liv's Anna van der Breggen and Marianne Vos rounded up the podium. Vos keeps the pink leader's jersey.

"I am really quite emotional," Pooley told Cyclingnews. "It was such an incredibly hard day. I feel so happy. It was a really good day."

The sixth stage was the first of the mountain stages as the peloton left the town of Gaiarine in Treviso to finish 112 kilometres later in San Fior. Two smaller climbs offered the peloton gradients approaching 20% and a demanding 13-kilometre climb before a long descent towards the finish.

After the intermediate sprint the first of the climbs came up and Emma Pooley chose that steep hill to attack the bunch. Pooley had lost her chances for a good general classification as she suffered from continuous nosebleeds during the entire first stage, but made up for it with a deserving stage victory.

"The Lotto-Belisol team did a brilliant job to position me at that the foot of the climb. It was like a Mur de Huy type climb. I don't think Rabo-Liv expected this. I think they expected us to wait until the longer climb. The team really did a brilliant job."

Behind the Lotto-Belisol rider a group of six chasers formed. Rabo-Liv was represented by young Polish rider Kasia Niewiadoma. Specialized-Lululemon's sent Trixi Worrack up the road. Alé-Cipollini's climber Elena Berlato, stage 2 winner Giorgia Bronzini for Wiggle-Honda, Boels-Dolmans' Jessie Daams and Valentina Scandolara (Orica-AIS), who wears the mountain jersey were the others in the chasing group.

"The Rabo rider didn't really work in the group and neither did Daams and later Scandolara. The Rabo rider [Kasia Niewiadoma] was the biggest threat. She stayed with me the longest," Pooley said.

On the first long climb of this Giro Rosa, Worrack, Bronzini , Daams, Berlato and Scandolara were dropped. The 19-year old Niewiadoma was the only one to initially follow Pooley but the new British time trial champion dropped her to continue on her own.

On the top of the climb she had a two minute margin on the group with all the big names like race leader Marianne Vos and her teammate Pauline Ferrand Prevot. Other riders from the top of the leader board were there like Elisa Longo Borghini and last year's Giro Rosa winner Mara Abbott.

The group caught Niewiadoma and while the gap to Pooley on the long, 27-kilometre descent towards San Fior dropped steadily with Rabo-Liv working hard, the 31-year old Lotto-Belisol rider managed to stay away to take her second victory of the season.

"I didn't expect them to chase me down so hard. I am no threat in the GC," Pooley commented. "But the gap went down from two minutes to a few seconds. I really thought I wouldn't make it. When you see the finish picture they really came close. This is all very emotional."

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