DUBAI — Fernando Gaviria took his 6th win of the season, coming home first to win the bunch sprint at the Giro della Toscana in Italy.

Gaviria opened up his sprint with more than 400m to go after the 182.9km day starting and finishing in Pontedera. The win marks his 46th career victory and the 25th win of the year for UAE Team Emirates.

Gaviria: “Whenever I pin a number on my bike I want to try and win. I made a couple of mistakes in Tirreno but I’ve recovered well since then and today we did a good job as a team.

“I was sitting a bit further down the group trying to stay out of stress and I saw an opportunity to go early in the sprint and I managed to get a big gap and luckily no-one came past me.”

Philipsen 2nd in Luxembourg

Meanwhile Jasper Philipsen just fell short of his second win of the season, the Belgian being edged out by Frenchman Arnaud Demare (Groupama-FDJ).

The stage was neutralized early-on for over 100km due to issues with road traffic, though action resumed in the final hour at which point the racing began to heat up.

Ulissi finished safely in the pack and continues to wear the yellow jersey as leader of the general classification.

UAE Team Emirates also lead the team classification while Philipsen holds second overall, the points jersey and the young riders jersey.

Giro della Toscana results:

1. Fernando Gaviria (UAE Team Emirates) 4:14:36; 2. Robert Stannard (Mitchelton-Scott)”; 3. Ethan Hayter (Ineos Grenadiers”.

Tour de Luxembourg stage 2 results: 1. Arnaud Demare (Groupama-FDJ) 50:06; 2. Jasper Philipsen (UAE Team Emirates)”; 3. Alexander Krieger (Alpecin – Fenix)”.

Tour de Luxembourg GC after stage 2: 1. Diego Ulissi (UAE Team Emirates) 4:03:11; 2. Jasper Philipsen (UAE Team Emirates) @4”; 3. Amaury Capiot (Sport-Vlaanderen)”. — SG