Stage 16

The road

At the start

The Mortirolo, straight off the rest day

The hardest day of this Giro comes with the legs still cold: 200 kilometres from Lake Garda to Aprica, three enormous climbs, 5,250 metres of ascent. The Mortirolo is the one everybody will talk about, but the sting is the Santa Cristina — 13.5 kilometres at eight per cent, its second half at ten. Richard Carapaz leads Jai Hindley by seven seconds, João Almeida by thirty, Mikel Landa by 59.

How it was won

1. 1142 km to go

   Over the Goletto di Cadino

   A large, strong break is up the road with Valverde, Arensman, Hirt, Carthy, Bouwman, Poels and Kämna among them, and Ineos are content to let it go on the biggest mountain day of the race.

2. 271 km to go

   Astana detonate the Mortirolo

   12.6km at 7.2%, and three kilometres from the top everything changes. A big turn from De la Cruz and a bigger one from Dombrowski cut the bunch to about fifteen riders. Carapaz is suddenly down to one teammate. Then Nibali hits the front in the last few hundred metres and sails away on the descent, forcing a panicked chase — and forcing an error out of Pozzovivo, who crashes and comes down the mountain alone.

3. 329 km to go

   Kämna takes the bonus and goes

   The uncategorised climb to Teglio is steep enough — 5.6km at 8.2% with double-digit ramps — to drop Bouwman. Kämna leads over for three bonus seconds ahead of Valverde and Arensman, then attacks on the short descent to the foot of the final climb with the gap down to just over three minutes.

4. 410 km to go

   Landa opens the GC fight

   On the steep second half of the Santa Cristina, Bilbao and Landa somehow tangle and crash going uphill. It costs them briefly, then Bilbao and Poels give final turns and Landa accelerates five kilometres from the top. Carapaz is instantly on it, Hindley too, and the three go clear with Almeida chasing.

5. 58 km to go

   Hirt counters Arensman

   Up front, Hirt and Arensman have caught a fading Kämna and dropped him immediately. Arensman surges first; Hirt counters and goes clear with two and a half kilometres of Pantani's climb left.

6. 65 km to go

   Fifteen seconds at the summit

   Hirt crests the Valico di Santa Cristina with fifteen seconds and six kilometres to go, facing a wet, technical five-kilometre drop to Aprica — the exact road Pantani made famous in 1994.

7. 7At the line

   Hirt takes it, Hindley takes seconds

   Both leaders descend gingerly in the wet and the Czech has ten seconds onto the final uphill kilometre, riding most of it out of the saddle for the biggest win of his career at 31. Behind, Hindley hits out from range for the bonus seconds and, with Carapaz drawing level on the line, just holds on — a small but significant step towards pink.

The result