Giulio Ciccone wins cold and rainy 16th stage of Giro d'Italia
May 28 2019 11:20 pm CET
Trek-Segafredo
Trek-Segafredo's Giulio Ciccone has taken the victory of the 16th stage of the Giro d'Italia. The Italian crossed the finish line ahead of his escape companion Jan Hirt.
The Corsa Rosa continued in the mountains with a 194-kilometre route that included the iconic Mortirolo and other two climbs of the third category. A group of 21 riders broke free in the first kilometres of the race and included names like Giulio Ciccone, Fausto Masnada, Mattia Cattaneo, Jan Hirt, Andrey Amador, Pello Bilbao, Francisco Ventoso and Damiano Caruso, among others.
The front group broke completely at the ascent of the Mortirolo until only Hirt, Caruso and Ciccone remained. With 34 kilometres to go, Nibali launched an attack and none of his rivals seemed to react straight away and in the favourites' group, Movistar took the lead to set the pace while riders like Primoz Roglic and Simon Yates were slowly left behind.
Nibali joined his brother Antonio and Hugh Carthy while behind a group that included Richard Carapaz, Mikel Landa, Antonio Pedrero and Miguel Angel Lopez got closer to them. Soon after, Lopez attacked and caught the leader of Bahrain-Merida and they were later joined by Landa and Carapaz.
Ciccone and Hirt crossed the top of the Mortirolo in the first position while the Nibali-Carapaz group was four minutes behind and the Roglic-Yates' more than five minutes behind. Lopez met Bilbao at the top of the pass and the two started the descent together, which gave them some advantage over the rest of the group.
The descent was dangerous because of the rain, so nobody took real risks to try to get more time. At the end of the descent, Lopez was reeled back in by the Nibali group while in front Ciccone did most of the work as Hirt didn't want to pull having Lopez and Bilbao behind.
The Italian launched a strong sprint in the final metres and crossed the finish line in the first position. Androni-Giocattoli's Fausto Masnada arrived to the end in third place, while Carapaz did so with Nibali and kept the lead of the overall classification.
Roglic dropped to the third position of the General Classification and is two minutes and nine seconds behind Carapaz, while Nibali is now in the second place, one minute and 47 seconds behind the Ecuadorian.
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