Tadej Pogačar won his fifth stage of the Giro d’Italia on Tuesday, taking victory in the freezing rain on the summit of Monte Pana on stage 16 at Santa Cristina Valgardena
It initially looked like Giulio Pellizzarri (VF Group-Bardiani CSF-Faizanè) would triumph from the breakaway in the horrendous conditions, but the race leader was hungry for another win.
Once he attacked from Rafał Majka’s back wheel, the Slovenian was no match for his rivals and he simply rode away from the rest of the general classification group. Pogačar soon swept up the remnants of the day’s breakaway on the final climb before he eventually caught and passed Pellizzari.
His pink jersey soaked in the rain, Pogačar counted out his individual stage victories on his hand before raising it to the sky in celebration once more as he extended his overall lead in the race.
The Slovenian now has a gap of more than seven minutes on Dani Martínez (Bora-Hansgrohe) who sits second overall with just a handful of stages left before the finish in Rome on Sunday.
Pellizzarri took second behind Pogačar with Martínez claiming third. The Bora man leapfrogged Geraint Thomas in the overall standings after the Welshman was distanced in the closing moments.
"The day started really on and off and we didn’t know what to do, but when we started it was fine,” Pogačar said after changing into dry clothing. "The breakaway went, and it was good for us, and we sat back and tried to relax but Movistar kept on pushing and kept the breakaway close and then they went really fast on the second last climb."
Pogačar was full of praise for the man who finished second and handed Pellizarri his sunglasses and pink jersey as a souvenir post stage.
"I was thinking that Pellizzari would win today’s stage and he was close and I’m super happy that he arrives second also,” he added.
"I really admire him in this Giro already and he sent me a photo that we took in 2019 I was actually a small kid and he was also a small kid and it was an amazing memory from Strade Bianche and now he’s here and he’s going really strong and maybe he can win a stage this week."
How it happened
The start of the stage was heavily disrupted as a debate over whether or not to include the Umbrail Pass in the route raged on in Livigno. All of the peloton voted in favour of removing the mountain from the course which led to the stage start being postponed as discussions continued.
Eventually the race got underway from Spondigna and was shortened to 120 kilometres with approximately 2,500 metres of elevation removed from the course. The shortened stage led to a rapid start and a four man breakaway soon formed.
With 62 kilometres left to the finish on Monte Pana, Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal Quick-Step), Mirco Maestri (Polti-Kometa), Davide Ballerini (Astana Qazaqstan) and Andrea Piccolo (EF Education-EasyPost) got up the road and soon established a gap of just under two minutes.
The breakaway did not contest the first intermediate sprint of the day in Bolzano as the riders got set for the climbing to begin with the Passo Pinei. With 41 kilometres left to ride the leaders had one minute and 36 seconds over the Movistar led peloton.
As the Passo Pinei started, the breakaways gap began to tumble. Sensing that another stage win was on the cards, Alaphilippe pushed on and soon increased his advantage on the peloton to almost two minutes as his former breakaway compatriots languished in no man’s land on the climb.
With 25 kilometres to go, Alaphilippe had 1:55 on the peloton and was showing no signs of relenting. Pelayo Sanchez (Movistar) launched an attack from the peloton as the Passo Pinnei continued and rapidly swallowed up the remnants of the breakaway as he went in search of the former world champion.
Movistar’s incessant work on the front of the peloton rapidly cut Alaphilippe’s lead to just 28 seconds as the Pinnei continued to decimate the general classification group. With 13 kilometres left, Sanchez suffered a brief mechanical issue on the climb as the Spanish team continued to work to set up Einer Rubio and move the Colombian up on GC.
Alaphilippe managed to push his lead back out to almost a minute on the descent of the Passo Pinei. With six kilometres to go, he began Monte Panna with UAE and Pogačar hot in pursuit in the GC group. The Frenchman was soon caught and dropped by a three man chase group containing Giulio Pellizarri (VF Group-Bardiani CSF-Faizanè).
The Pellizzari group initially looked like they would contest the stage but Pogačar had other ideas, After being set up by his teammates, the race leader soloed clear from the GC group before catching the trio of riders up ahead.
There would be no stopping Pogačar as he took his fifth win of the race.
Results
Giro d’Italia 2024, stage 16: Livigno > Santa Cristina Val Gardena (Monte Pana)
1. Tadej Pogačar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates, in 02:49:37
2. Giulio Pellizzari (Ita) VF Group–Bardiani–CSF–Faizanè, +16s
3. Dani Martínez (Col) Bora-Hansgrohe, at same time
4. Cristian Scaroni (Ita) Astana Qazaqstan, +31s
5. Antonio Tiberi (Ita) Bahrain Victorious, +33s
6. Thymen Arensman (Ned) Ineos Grenadiers, +38s
7. Damiano Caruso (Ita) Bahrain Victorious, +39s
8. Michael Storer (Aus) Tudor Pro Cycling, +42s
9. Ewen Costiuo (Fra) Arkea-B&B Hotels, at same time
10. Valentin Paret-Peintre (Fra) Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale, +45s
General classification after stage 16
1. Tadej Pogačar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates, in 59:01:09
2. Daniel Martinez (Col) Bora-Hansgrohe, +7:18
3. Geraint Thomas (Gbr) Ineos Grenadiers, +7:40
4. Ben O'Connor (Aus) Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale, +8:42
5. Antonio Tiberi (Ita) Bahrain Victorious, +10:09
6. Thymen Arensman (Ned) Ineos Grenadiers, +10:33
7. Romain Bardet (Fra) dsm-firmenich PostNL, +12:18
8. Filippo Zana (Ita) Jayco-AIUla, +12:43
9. Einer Rubio (Col) Movistar, +13:09
10. Jan Hirt (Cze) Soudal Quick-Step, +14-07
