Giro d’Italia 2016 – Stage 16 [LAST 5 KM]

May 24, 2016
Giro d’Italia 2016 – Stage 16 [Medium-mountain stage] – Bressanone – Andalo – 132 km

The 2016 Giro d’Italia will be 99th running of the Giro d’Italia, one of cycling’s Grand Tour races. The Giro will start in Apeldoorn on 6 May with an 9.8 km (6 mi) individual time trial, and continue with two other stages in the Netherlands, both between Nijmegen and Arnhem. Then, after a rest day, there will be 18 further stages to reach the finish on 29 May. These stages are principally in Italy, although two stages take place partly in France.

Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) took his first ever Giro d’Italia stage victory and moved himself back into podium contention on a fast and furious stage 16 to Andalo. Valverde beat maglia rosa Steven Kruijswijk in a sprint to the line as the Dutchman extended his lead in the overall classification for the second consecutive stage.

Ilnur Zakarin had been in a group with Kruijswijk and Valverde but couldn’t handle the finishing speed and rolled in eight seconds down. Home favourite Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) blew up on the penultimate climb and lost over a minute in the fight for the overall classification.

There was action from start to finish with almost all of the key GC riders taking a punt off the front. Sitting just off the podium going into the stage, it was Valverde that forced the race-winning move on the Fai della Paganella with 15 kilometres remaining.

Kruijswijk was wise to the Movistar rider and comfortably closed the gap with Zakarin the final rider able to make the junction. The move forced the first signs of difficulty for Nibali, who swiftly dropped back to a chasing group that contained Esteban Chaves (Orica-GreenEdge).

All intent on turning the screws on Nibali, the three initially put their own ambitions aside to do just that. Valverde’s intentions soon became obvious as he sat on the back of the bunch, allowing Zakarin to take them through the final kilometres. The Spaniard finally made his move just before the last corner and his finishing speed was too much for Kruijswijk to handle. The time gap and the bonus seconds were enough to move him back onto the podium and within touching distance of Chaves in second with 23 seconds separating the two.

Results :

1 Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar Team 2:58:54
2 Steven Kruijswijk (Ned) Team LottoNl-Jumbo
3 Ilnur Zakarin (Rus) Team Katusha 0:00:08
4 Diego Ulissi (Ita) Lampre – Merida 0:00:37
5 Bob Jungels (Lux) Etixx – Quick-Step
6 David Lopez Garcia (Spa) Team Sky 0:00:38
7 Sergey Firsanov (Rus) Gazprom-Rusvelo
8 Esteban Chaves (Col) Orica-GreenEdge 0:00:42
9 Rafal Majka (Pol) Tinkoff Team 0:00:50
10 Domenico Pozzovivo (Ita) AG2R La Mondiale 0:01:47

General classification after Stage 16:
1 Steven Kruijswijk (Ned) Team LottoNl-Jumbo 63:40:10
2 Esteban Chaves (Col) Orica-GreenEdge 0:03:00
3 Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar Team 0:03:23
4 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Astana Pro Team 0:04:43
5 Ilnur Zakarin (Rus) Team Katusha 0:04:50
6 Rafal Majka (Pol) Tinkoff Team 0:05:34
7 Bob Jungels (Lux) Etixx – Quick-Step 0:07:57
8 Andrey Amador (CRc) Movistar Team 0:06:53
9 Domenico Pozzovivo (Ita) AG2R La Mondiale 0:10:05
10 Kanstantsin Siutsou (Blr) Dimension Data 0:11:03