Stage 16

The road

At the start

Back over the Alps, and a long way

Giovanni Visconti won beside the Pantani monument in falling snow; Nibali finished with every rival and still leads Evans by 1:26 and Urán by 2:46. Carlos Betancur has taken the white jersey off Rafał Majka. Today is the long way home: back over Mont Cenis into Italy, two hundred and thirty-five kilometres to Ivrea, and a climb to Andrate fifteen kilometres from the line.

How it was won

1. 1169 km to go

   Mont Cenis, the other way

   Back over the same pass and back into Italy, this time with a large and unruly group of twenty-two up the road. It is a very long way to Ivrea, and nobody in front appears to agree on how to get there.

2. 250 km to go

   The break turns on itself

   Fifty kilometres out the harmony finally cracks. Pate and Sutherland attack, Meier answers, Navardauskas drags the whole thing back together — and the peloton, watching the squabble, closes to within three and a half minutes.

3. 340 km to go

   Sella and Kelderman get free

   Twenty kilometres before the foot of Andrate, Sella and Kelderman finally escape the arguing and Pate bridges up to them. Three riders working properly, a minute and twenty-three seconds, and a mountain coming.

4. 415 km to go

   Betancur alone over Andrate

   The climb burns through the escape and then through the peloton: Dupont attacks, Scarponi attacks, Nibali pounces on both. Duarte drags the last of the break towards the summit and the bunch takes them with eighteen kilometres left, a dozen riders in the maglia rosa group. Betancur uses Pirazzi's final desperate move as a launchpad and crests the top on his own — and behind him, Mauro Santambrogio has been dropped.

5. 510 km to go

   Nibali on the descent

   Sánchez joins Betancur on the first slopes down. Scarponi goes after them, and Nibali goes after Scarponi — catches him, drops him, and latches onto the two leaders as if the road were dry. With ten kilometres left it is all together again.

6. 6At the line

   Intxausti takes Ivrea

   Beñat Intxausti wins the sprint from Kangert and Niemiec — a second Movistar stage in two days. Five kilometres out Santambrogio was two minutes down; by Ivrea his podium has gone with the rest of it.

The result