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100th Giro d’Italia Stage 16: stomach problems plague Dumoulin on queen stage

Controversy as Nibali wins wild day

Giro d'Italia

Vincenzo Nibali broke the Italian duck on Tuesday’s queen stage of the Giro d’Italia by winning his seventh career stage, although in controversial fashion. There will long be debate as to how much or how long the favourites should have waited for race leader Tom Dumoulin after the Dutchman stopped to take the more complicated of the two kinds of nature breaks and seemingly suffered tummy troubles in general. Dumoulin scrapped hard to keep his pink jersey by 31-seconds.


The Route

Even though it didn’t have a summit finish, Stage 16 was considered to be the Queen Stage, thick with legendary climbs. The riders would assail the mighty Mortirolo once and the fearsome Stelvio twice, the second time from the Swiss side. After the peak there was a 19.5-km plunge to the line in Bormio.


The Break

Fifty kilometres of racing in the first hour wasn’t conducive to a break forming. As the Mortirolo approached, a huge breakaway of 25 was able to get away. Oddly, the 9th and 10th place riders, Andrey Amador and Steven Kruijswijk respectively, made the cut. Michael Woods was in the escape with two teammates.

Mortirolo

On the 12.6-km, 7.6% climb, there was a whittling of the breakaway. At its peak Astana’s LL Sanchez crested first, dedicating the climb to Michele Scarponi. Omar Fraile, second over and now second to Sanchez in the KOM competition, put his arm around the Astana rider. The breakaway had a 1:30 gap.


Stelvio I

Back in the peloton, Movistar and Trek had taken their turns at the front of the group. With Mikel Landa in the breakaway mob, Vasil Kiyrienka upped the pace and increased the gap before the first clamber of the Stelvio, which was the race’s Cima Coppi, or highest point prize. The climb was 21-km of 7.2%

Dumoulin was out of teammates in the streamlined peloton as Movistar began to heat up the race. Out front the fugitives became fewer and fewer. Landa crested first with Sanchez third. The gap was now 2:02.


On the way to Stelvio II (Umbrailpass)

On the descent of the Stelvio, Landa and Amador scuttled away from the five others they peaked with. Although the Umbrailpass side of the Stelvio is considered to be 13-km long and 8%, the riders really were climbing from the bottom of the first Stelvio’s descent. It was on this long gradual grade that Kruijswijk led the chase back to Landa and Amador, once more making a septet.


With 45-km to go the break held a 3:10 gap. The peloton had grown again simply from the remnants of the earlier 27-rider escape. Worried about their men’s place in the GC, Orica, Quick Step and Katusha led.

The race entered Switzerland with 37-km to go and fans held their breath.

The peloton getting closer, Kruijswijk bolted. Landa and eventually Jan Hirt (Czech Republic/CCC) were equal to him.



The Tummy Trouble

Dumoulin’s digestive system insisted upon itself at an inconvenient time and the camera swung away as he doffed his pink jersey…

Ilnur Zakarin attacked and this caused some confusion. Zakarin was brought back by Movistar and Bahrain, but the injection of pace had put Dumoulin 40-seconds behind. Movistar and Bahrain initially looked to slow the pace. Dumoulin was not making up time and was 1:30 behind his rivals with 30-km to go. Since Zakarin there were no attacks among the favourites, but both Bahrain and Movistar kept a high pace.


Landa attacked the breakaway just before Nibali attacked the favourites group. Nibali was tracked down but Bob Jungels fell off the group. Quintana, Nibali, Zakarin and Domenico Pozzovivo separated themselves.


The fearsome foursome scooped up Kruijswijk and passed right through him. Landa was keeping clear of Hirt and the Nibali-Quintana quartet. The gap to Dumoulin started to stretch.

Nibali attacked with 2-km left to climb, Quintana taking his wheel. Landa was up and over alone, making him the double king of the Stelvio. Dumoulin was fighting the gradient behind but still not out of the pink.

The Descent

The foursome reformed on the descent and drew closer to Landa. Nibali then dropped like a stone, shedding the others and linking up with Landa. Dumoulin started to take back some time.

Landa and Nibali had 8-seconds on Quintana as they went under the red kite. Nibali let Landa lead out and then dispatched him with aplomb–the Shark of Messina is now in third place. Quintana came in 12-seconds later to take the last of the bonus seconds. Dumoulin survived and still leads Quintana by 31-seconds.

Thibaut Pinot has 1:26 to make up on Nibali to get his podium spot back. Amador tumbles out of the top-10 with Adam Yates taking his place.

Wednesday is another day in the mountains with three categorized climbs and a very long drag to the finish in Canazei.

2017 Giro d’Italia Stage 16
1) Vincenzo Nibali (Italy/Bahrain-Merida) 6:24:22
2) Mikel Landa (Colombia/Sky) s.t.
3) Nairo Quintana (Colombia/Movistar) +0:12

2017 Giro d’Italia GC
1) Tom Dumoulin (The Netherlands/Sunweb) 70:14:48
2) Nairo Quintana (Colombia/Movistar) +0:31
3) Vincenzo Nibali (Italy/Bahrain-Merida) +1:12