The four-man break of the day looked like they might go all the way to the finish in Cuneo, but the peloton timed the chase perfectly and caught them 700 metres before the finish-line. French fast-man, Arnaud Démare, took his third stage win of this Giro d'Italia.

After a less than exciting day on the Giro d'Italia, stage 6 came down to the expected sprint finish. And it was quite a sprint. It took the camera to separate Caleb Ewan, Arnaud Démare and Mark Cavendish. Démare won the sprint by the smallest margin. Juan Pedro López held the overall lead.

Stage 5 was billed as a sprinters day, but there was a climb that saw sprint favourites Mark Cavendish and Caleb Ewan dropped by the peloton. In Messina Arnaud Démare was the fastest in a chaotic sprint ahead of an angry Fernando Gaviria and Giacomo Nizzolo.

A real sprinter's day and it was the top sprinter of the season, Arnaud Démare who showed his top form... By a bike length. All the talk before the stage was 'how to beat the Frenchman?' None of the plans worked and the French champion took his fourth stage win. João Almeida holds the pink jersey for another day.

Nine stages down and twelve more to come and another rest day, but the first week has fed our Covid-19 need for bike racing. Ed Hood has been tied to the TV in 'Sunny Scotland' watching the 2020 Italian Grand Tour unfold. Here are his thoughts as the peloton enjoys the first rest day.

After a windy day of echelons and crashes, it was the French national champion, Arnaud Démare who won the bunch gallop into Brindisi and he made it look easy again. Peter Sagan took yet another second place with Michael Matthews in third. The pink jersey stayed with João Almeida.

French champion Arnaud Démare (Groupama-FDJ) battled his way to the front at the end of a chaotic finalé and held off all the others for what he made look like an easy win. The Frenchman also pulled on the points leaders jersey. João Almeida (Deceuninck – Quick-Step) finished in the bunch to hold the overall lead.

A day for the sprinters that was nearly ruined by the climb of the Portella Mandrazzi, in the end the fast-finishers battled it out. On the line, the photo finish equipment was needed to separate Peter Sagan, Arnaud Démare and Davide Ballerini. It was the French champion who was given the victory. João Almeida added 2 seconds to his overall lead, thanks to the intermediate sprint.

The Giro d'Italia starting in October! That's nearly as crazy as the Vuelta a España in finishing in November, but here we are back to racing.  We take a good look at the new course and who's hot to trot in Italy for the next three weeks.