NAPLES, Italy (AP) — Australian cyclist Kaden Groves sprinted to victory in a chaotic sixth stage of the Giro d’Italia that had be neutralized following a massive crash on Thursday.
When 2022 winner Jai Hindley slid on the wet roads, riders toppled in domino style with about 70 kilometers (43 miles) left on the 227-kilometer (141-mile) route from Potenza to Naples.
Hindley was taken to hospital with reported concussion and other riders also had to abandon the three-week race.
With all of the ambulances in use, the stage was neutralized for safety reasons while it was discussed how best to continue.
Two breakaway riders and the peloton were brought to a halt. The race resumed with about 60 kilometers remaining and the decision that only the stage win would count and no points, time gaps or bonuses would be awarded.
That option allowed Naples to get its stage finish and the sprinters could vie for a prestigious win but the overall contenders could remain as safe as possible.
Overall leader Mads Pedersen, who won three of the opening five stages, preserved his 17-second advantage over pre-race favorite Primoz Roglic, and Mathias Vacek was another seven seconds back.
Groves beat Milan Fretin in a much-reduced bunch sprint to the finish line after the longest stage of this Giro, with Paul Magnier third.
It was Groves' first win of the year after a knee injury sidelined the Alpecin–Deceuninck rider for several races.
“The team always believes in me,” he said. “With the injury I missed a lot of racing and I was arriving here without a win, so the first one for the year is a big relief.
“Once it started raining, I felt quite a bit better, actually. I’m quite good in the colder weather conditions. I had confidence in my team also, I believe in them, and they always do a super job.”
Friday’s seventh stage sees the first summit finish in the hardest leg so far. There are four classified climbs on the 168-kilometer route from Castel di Sangro, including the top category ascent to the finish in Tagliacozzo.
The Giro ends in Rome on June 1.
AP sports: https://apnews.com/sports
The pack pedals during stage 6 of the Giro d'Italia from Potenza to Naples, Italy, Thursday, May 15, 2025. (Fabio Ferrari/LaPresse via AP)
The pack rides during the sixth stage of the Giro d'Italia cycling race from Potenza to Naples, Italy, Thursday, May 15, 2025. (Fabio Ferrari/LaPresse via AP)
Denmark's Mads Pedersen reacts after the sixth stage of the Giro d'Italia cycling race was neutralised following a huge crash, Thursday, May 15, 2025. (Fabio Ferrari/LaPresse via AP)
BERLIN (AP) — The German government has sharply rejected accusations by U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. claiming that it has been sidelining patient autonomy, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The statements made by the US Secretary of Health are completely unfounded, factually incorrect, and must be rejected,” German Health Minister Nina Warken said in a statement late Saturday.
Kennedy said in a video post earlier on Saturday that he had sent the German minister a letter based on reports coming out of Germany that the government was “limiting people’s abilities to act on their own convictions when they face medical decisions.”
The American health secretary said that “I've learned that more than a thousand German physicians and thousands of their patients now face prosecution and punishment for issuing exemptions from wearing masks or getting COVID-19 vaccines during the pandemic."
Warken rejected Kennedy’s claims, saying that “during the coronavirus pandemic, there was never any obligation on the medical profession to administer COVID-19 vaccinations. Anyone who did not want to offer vaccinations for medical, ethical, or personal reasons was not liable to prosecution, nor did they have to fear sanctions.”
Kennedy did not give provide specific examples or say which reports he was referring to but added that “in my letter, I explained that Germany is targeting physicians who put their patients first and punishing citizens for making their own medical choices.”
He concluded that "the German government is now violating the sacred patient physician relationship, replacing it is a dangerous system that makes physicians enforcers of state policies.”
Kennedy said that in his letter he made clear that “Germany has the opportunity and the responsibility to correct this trajectory, to restore medical autonomy, to end politically motivated prosecutions.”
Warken pointed out that there were no professional bans or fines for not getting vaccinated.
“Criminal prosecution was only pursued in cases of fraud and document forgery, such as the issuance of false vaccination certificates or fake mask certificates," the minister said.
She also clarified that in general in Germany “patients are also free to decide which therapy they wish to undergo.”
Former German Health Minister Karl Lauterbach, who was in charge during the pandemic, also replied, addressing Kennedy directly on X saying that he “should take care of health problems in his own country. Short life expectancy, extreme costs, tens of thousands of drug deaths and murder victims."
“In Germany, doctors are not punished by the government for issuing false medical certificates. In our country, the courts are independent,” Lauterbach wrote.
While a majority of Germans were eager to get vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus during the pandemic, there were also protests by a small minority of vaccine skeptics in Germany which were sometimes supported by far-right movements.
FILE - Robert Kennedy Jr., center, President-elect Donald Trump's pick to lead the Health and Human Services Department, walks between meetings with senators on Capitol Hill, Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File)
