Denmark's Emma Norsgaard won the sixth stage of the women's Giro Donne today ©Getty Images

Denmark’s Emma Norsgaard, riding for Movistar Team, won a mass sprint to take the sixth stage of the women’s Giro Donne a day after finishing second behind Dutch rider Lorena Wiebes.

Norsgaard completed the longest stage of the race, a 157-kilometres loop beginning and ending in Colico, in 3hr 41min 39sec, mainly following the shores of the Lago di Como.

The Danish rider was followed home by United States cyclist Coryn Rivera of Team DSM and Marianne Vos of The Netherlands, representing Jumbo-Visma Women Team.

Defending champion Anna van der Breggen maintained her overall lead after coming home once again in the main peloton. 

After six stages the 31-year-old Dutch rider - seeking a fourth title after her wins in 2015, 2017 and 2020 -  leads the general classification on 14:11:47.

Her SD Worx team mates Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio of South Africa and fellow Dutch rider Demi Vollering are respectively second and third, at 2:51 and 3:03, with Britain’s Lizzie Deignan, riding for Trek-Segafredo, fourth at 5:53.

But van der Breggen had to relinquish the cyclamen jersey for the points classification to the 34-year-old Vos, who preceded van der Breggen as Olympic road race champion at the London 2012 Olympics, after the latter’s third place.