Today’s stage 16 saw a massive change in the overall classification in the Giro d’Italia, with race leader Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates) barely clinging onto the Maglia Rosa by less than 30 seconds after rivals Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) and Simon Yates (Visma-Lease a Bike) launched major attacks on the final ascent of the day.
However, the monster Alpine stage was won by Christian Scaroni after he and teammate Lorenzo Fortunato jettisoned the breakaway group with 5km to go, ending Italy’s longest drought with a stage win since 2017 with a spectacular two-up victory for XDS Astana.
Meanwhile, Primoz Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) was forced to abandon after but another crash, while Del Toro’s teammate Juan Ayuso, previously third overall, lost all chances of an overall victory after he cracked on the second last climb of the Santa Barbara.
Del Toro later on found himself in defensive mode on the final ascent of San Valentino, where Carapaz surged clear, followed by another attack from Yates that left the pink jersey wearer struggling even more.
However, the young Mexican rider managed to hang on bravely, later crossing the finish 1:36 down on Carapaz.
Earlier, Josh Tarling (Ineos Grenadiers), Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike and Darren Rafferty (EF Education-EasyPost) initiated the first attack of the day just before the first ascent to Carbonare. However, disaster later struck for Tarling, as he slid out on a roundabout, forcing the Welshman to abandon the race.
From there, a large group of riders being led by Pello Bilbao (Bahrain Victorious) eventually made contact with the leaders, with David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) and Fortunato amongst them.
Back in the peloton, another crash plagued the field, ensnaring Roglič and Carapaz, with only the latter able to remount and continue the race. The same occurred for Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) with 70km remaining, but he too was able to quickly rejoin the race.
In the meantime, EF Education-EasyPost and Visma-Lease a Bike upped the tempo on the penultimate climb of the Passo di Santa Barbara in a bid to put UAE under pressure, causing Ayuso to lose contact and fall out of contention in the overall classification.
Back up front, the break had been cut down to just a handful of riders along the ascent, while both Scaroni and Fortunato put the hurt on Jefferson Cepeda (Movistar), forcing the Ecuadorian rider to fall away.
Meanwhile, in the GC group, both Yates and Carapaz began attacking Del Toro, with Carapaz opening up a slight gap, as the EF rider continued the climb with a furious pace, taking back significant time as the summit approached.
However, Fortunato and Scaroni held on for an Astana 1-2 on the line, with Scaroni crossing first, as Carapaz came in fourth to move to within 30 seconds of the race lead.
