Canyon-SRAM earned its best stage finish of the Giro Rosa this year on stage 6 when Hannah Burns won a close battle with Marianne Vos (CCC-Liv) to take second place. Team leader Katarzyna Niewiadoma is in second place overall before the final three stages, and the team's focus will be on defending that position. Burns thanked her teammates for their support in leading the sprint.

"It was a pretty technical race and we all came together with 10km to go. First, I wanted to keep Cassia safe until 3km to go. Then Alena did a great lead out and led me for over a kilometer. Then Elena caught up and set me up nicely."

In the final kilometer, Burns lost ground in the final corner, but was able to sprint away to win the race.

"It was a big left turn and unfortunately I was on the right side. 'Probably with 220 meters to go I started sprinting and took advantage of my speed from behind to kick on. I haven't had many opportunities to go sprinting lately, so it was nice to come so close to winning." After reaching the 3km mark safely, Nieniadoma was cheering on his teammates in the sprint. The Polish climber noted that Burns is capable of going toe-to-toe with the best, but that her teammates sometimes doubt her too much. 'She's very fast, and she needs to believe in herself,' he said. 'I was very happy to see her go for it without any doubts. She had a great sprint and didn't give up much ground on the boss. After two stages that ended in bunch sprints, the last three stages of the race are likely to be another GC battle. He is 1:52 behind race leader Annemiek van Fluten (Mitchelton-Scott) and 11 seconds ahead of third-place finisher Anna van der Breggen (Boels-Dolmans), who is in second place. Since finishing 11th in her debut race in 2014, Niewiadoma has finished in the overall top 10 of the Giro Rosa for five consecutive years, with fifth in 2015 and 2019. This year could be his first time on the podium. 'I'm in good shape. With each passing day we understand each other and the race is getting easier. We have three fairly difficult stages, but we will take it day by day and see what happens," said Nienyadoma, who was cautious about their chances. Burns was similarly reserved, but noted an important aspect of the long stage race. Riders spend a lot of time together on the bike, but they spend even more time together off the bike. Our priority is to keep Kasia [Nienyadoma] safe and in a good position on GC," Barnes said. And we want to have fun. That's the secret to this Giro.

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