Stage 16

The road

At the start

Out of the rest day, into the Dolomites

Rodríguez took the maglia rosa back at Pian dei Resinelli and comes off the rest day thirty seconds up on Ryder Hesjedal, with Ivan Basso at 1:22 and Michele Scarponi at 1:36. Fränk Schleck's Giro ended on Sunday. Today climbs steadily north-east and finishes uphill at Falzes — hard enough to hurt, not hard enough to settle anything, with the Passo Giau waiting tomorrow.

How it was won

1. 1153 km to go

   Ten go, and the race stops chasing

   The start is so fast that nothing sticks for twenty-five kilometres. Once a group of ten finally does, the peloton puts the brakes on and simply lets them ride away.

2. 278 km to go

   Twelve and a half minutes

   The gap climbs and climbs until it is nearly thirteen minutes. Nobody in the ten threatens anything that matters, and a race with the Dolomites still to come is happy to give a day away.

3. 329 km to go

   Izagirre goes on the last climb

   The attacks start the moment the final climb does. Herrada leads over a cobbled ramp near the bottom, Ion Izagirre goes next, and the twenty-three-year-old Basque is quickly clear on his own.

4. 4At the line

   Izagirre solos to Falzes

   Sixteen seconds on De Marchi and Clement at the line, and a first Grand Tour stage for Euskaltel's youngest climber. The favourites come in nine minutes later having ridden up the mountain in conversation; nothing at the top of the standings moves at all.

The result