Giro d'Italia Stage 16 – May 21th, Valloire - Ivrea 238km,**Unmasked Spoilers**

dastardly00

This 238km long stage starts with a descent of the Col du Telegraphe and then an ascent to the top of the Cat. 1 climb of Mont Cenis (10km at 7%). After the descent, there is almost 120km of flat-ish road until the Cat. 3 climb of Andrate (6.4km at 8.4% :eek: ). From the summit, there is a 10km descent, and 8km of flat road to the finish. The last few kilometres contain some sharp turns and small sections of pavé.

This is definitely a day suited to a breakaway. Stefano Pirazzi & Giovanni Visconti are fighting it out for the KOM jersey, so expect them to be in the breakaway. Teams Colombia, Androni, Blanco and Vini Fantini have all been pretty active in the mountains so far, so they will probably have riders up in the breakaway again today. Sami Sanchez or Di Luca could fancy their chances if the breakaway aren't too far ahead when they tackle the final climb.

Will we see any action from the GC boys? Probably not .... as they will be saving their energy for the Dolomites. However, the last climb of Andrate is definitely tough enough to cause some difficulty to GC contenders. And there is also the offering of some time bonifications at the finish line. Nibali and Evans will probably just sit tight and stay defensive, but who's to say that someone like Bentacur or Santambrogio won't launch a cheeky attack.

And finally, Happy Birthday Cav! 28 today.






GC after rest day 2:
1. Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Astana 62:02:34
2. Cadel Evans (Aus) BMC @1:26
3. Rigoberto Uran Uran (Col) Sky @2:46
4. Mauro Santambrogio (Ita) Vini Fantini-Selle Italia @2:47
5. Michele Scarponi (Ita) Lampre-Merida @3:53
6. Przemyslaw Niemiec (Pol) Lampre-Merida @4:35
7. Carlos Alberto Betancur (Col) Ag2R La Mondiale @5:15
8. Rafal Majka (Pol) Team Saxo-Tinkoff @5:20
9. Domenico Pozzovivo (Ita) Ag2R La Mondiale @5:57
10. Benat Intxausti (Spa) Movistar Team @6:21

Live TV coverage on Eurosport1 from 1.30pm. Highlights on Sky Sports 2 at 7.45pm, and on Eurosport1 at 10.30pm.
Live ticker here.

gwakamoley

Is the Eurosport player not working for anyone else?

retalivity

great stage

IM0

looked for a thread on todays stage, couldnt see any!

was a great stage alright, knew that long steep climb would cause some upset. santambrogio the real loser today. what happened to him wrong place and off guard or just not able that is the question

lots of interesting shennagins in an otherwise on paper possibly average stage

MPFG

Love todays stage

Most people seem to love either mountain top finishes or sprint finishes

I prefer today's type of race where it's a long downhill to the finish and only the top GC guys ( and maybe a few more ) are up there because of the intermediate high mountain stage....love the attacking and counter attacking of the big names as they try to gain a few seconds on each other and I love the down hill speed

I remember a very good stage in 2011 tour de france when Tommy Vocleur in yellow ended up in someone's front graden in a fast downhill finish...

Happy for Benat Intxuasti - talented rider and i imagine he has had a difficult time coming to terms with Xavier Tondo's death in 2011..

IM0

MPFG wrote: »

Love todays stage

Most people seem to love either mountain top finishes or sprint finishes

I prefer today's type of race where it's a long downhill to the finish and only the top GC guys ( and maybe a few more ) are up there because of the intermediate high mountain stage....love the attacking and counter attacking of the big names as they try to gain a few seconds on each other and I love the down hill speed .

yeah I know what you mean, you dont see this stuff much in the tour but the giro you get, one of the many reasons it kicks the **** out of the tour

Brad768

Really good stage today, attack after attack where several thought they could hold it to victory. One of my favourites of the Giro this year!

lennymc

i agree - best stage so far. Great racing, gutsy riding by Pirazzi for the mountain points, and then to see him attacking on the flat near the end. Brilliant! buy that man a bass!!

bazermc

Looks like due to bad weather the big mountain stages for Friday and Saturday could also be cut

Such a shame, but obviously riders safety is number one - looks like the overall GC win is being handed to Nibali on a plate