page_title: 2012 Giro d'Italia, Stage 1 to Stage 11
section_title: Stage 6
hierarchical_section_title: 2012 Giro d'Italia, Stage 1 to Stage 11 / Stage 6
context_page_description: The 2012 Giro d'Italia began on 5 May, and stage 11 occurred on 16 May. The 2012 edition began with an individual time trial stage – where each member of the starting peloton of 198 riders competed against the clock – in Herning, Denmark with two more stages held in the country before an early rest day. The riders then travelled by air to Italy, with the race resuming in Verona and a team time trial, an event where each member of a team started together racing against the clock.
  Taylor Phinney held the lead of the race throughout its opening Danish leg; having won the race-commencing individual time trial, Phinney defended it on the following two stages, despite crashing in the closing stages of the third stage after being involved in a multi-rider incident. Phinney crossed the line in an ambulance, receiving medical attention before making his way onto the rostrum. The incident itself was started by Roberto Ferrari clipping Mark Cavendish – the winner of the second stage – causing Cavendish to fall and the rest of the field to stack up behind.
context_section_description: 11 May 2012 — Urbino to Porto Sant'Elpidio, 210 km (130.5 mi)
  After only fourth-category climbs at best during the early stages of the race, the sixth stage saw the introduction of the higher categorised climbs, with three third-category climbs on the stage's parcours, as well as the second-category Passo della Cappella on gravel roads, all coming after the 90 km (55.9 mi) mark. Fifteen riders representing fourteen teams – only Team Katusha had more than one rider in the breakaway, with riders Gatis Smukulis and Aleksandr Kuschynski – contributed to the opening move of the stage, as they accelerated off the front of the main field inside the first 20 km (12.4 mi) of the stage. Of the fifteen, four riders were dropped very quickly after that, including mountains classification leader Alfredo Balloni (Farnese Vini–Selle Italia), with the best placed of the remaining eleven out front being Team Saxo Bank's Luke Roberts, who had been 25th prior to the stage. Liquigas–Cannondale, who did not have a rider in the move out front, set about trying to bring the gap down to the main field, as the eleven riders held an advantage of close to nine minutes prior to the first climb of the day, the Cingoli.
  Omega Pharma–Quick-Step's Michał Gołaś led over the climb, while Miguel Ángel Rubiano (Androni Giocattoli–Venezuela) attacked on all three of the remaining climbs, giving him enough points to replace Balloni as the leader of the mountains classification at stage's end. After sitting up on the first two climbs to allow his breakaway companions – sans one rider, Movistar Team's Pablo Lastras, who abandoned after a crash with Garmin–Barracuda rider Jack Bauer – to rejoin, Rubiano did not wait at the top of the Montegranaro and accelerated away solo. Rubiano continued to extend his gap over the main field in the next few kilometres, extending his gap over his former breakaway companions to a maximum of a minute-and-a-half, while he had three minutes in hand over the peloton. As it transpired, Rubiano continued on to the stage victory, 70 seconds clear of a group of riders consisting of Lampre–ISD's Adriano Malori, Gołaś, Alexsandr Dyachenko of the Astana team, and Cesare Benedetti representing Grand Tour debutants Team NetApp. The field was led over the line 41 seconds later by Orica–GreenEDGE rider Daryl Impey, but Malori gained sufficient time to become the new leader of the race overall, 15 seconds ahead of Gołaś. Rubiano moved into fourth place in the standings behind Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin–Barracuda), half a minute behind Malori.
caption: Miguel Ángel Rubiano leads Jens Keukeleire during the stage. Rubiano eventually went on to win the stage by over a minute, and assumed the lead of the mountains classification.
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