The 16th stage of the Giro d'Italia 2023 saw the eagerly anticipated clash between the favourites for overall victory on Monte Bondone, which Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) in his favour. On the final climb, the Portuguese rider made common cause with Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers), who crossed the finish line at the same time as the day's winner and took the pink jersey from Bruno Armirail (Groupama-FDJ) took over.
Almeida eager to attack
"I just gave it a go in the final. It was very difficult, up and down all day. The hardest stage of this Giro so far. I still felt good at the end, attacked and it worked," said Almeida after the stage. When asked whether he was confident enough to attack for the pink jersey with a gap of just 18 seconds to Thomas, the 24-year-old replied: "If I feel good, I'll attack."
Primoz Roglic suffered a setback (Jumbo-Visma), who was unable to keep up with Almeida and Thomas and crossed the finish line 25 seconds after the leading duo. Thomas was visibly relieved to have taken time off the Slovenian.
"It would have been nice to win the stage. But we had to go full throttle at the front because we didn't want to let Roglic come back. That worked out, unfortunately Almeida was stronger. But it's good to be riding in pink again and to have made up time. However, it's not good to have lost a team-mate (Pavel Sivakov; editor's note)," said Geraint Thomas at the finish. Sivakov was still struggling with the consequences of a crash and had to abandon the 2023 Giro d'Italia. This means that Thomas' team, which has already lost Filippo Ganna and Tao Geoghegan Hart, is still in the race with five riders.
Giro d'Italia 2023: Lennard Kämna makes up one place
Lennard Kämna (Bora-Hansgrohe) had to let the competition go on the final climb and finished 11th, 1:20 minutes behind, but made up ground in the overall standings due to Bruno Armirail and Andreas Leknessund (Team DSM) gained one position and is now 6th.
The top 10 of the 16th stage
- Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) 5:53:27
- Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) +0:00
- Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) +0:25
- Eddie Dunbar (Team Jayco-AlUla) +0:25
- Sepp Kuss (Jumbo-Visma) +1:03
- Ilan van Wilder (Soudal - Quick Step) +1:16
- Damiano Caruso (Bahrain-Victorious) +1:16
- One Rubio (Movistar) +1:16
- Laurens De Plus (Ineos Grenadiers) +1:16
- Thymen Arensman (Ineos Grenadiers) +1:16
The overall standings
- Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) 67:32:35
- Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) +0:18
- Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) +0:29
- Damiano Caruso (Bahrain-Victorious) +2:50
- Eddie Dunbar (Team Jayco-AlUla) +3:03
- Lennard Kämna (Bora-Hansgrohe) +3:20
- Bruno Armirail (Groupama-FDJ) +3:22
- Andreas Leknessund (Team DSM) +3:30
- Thymen Arensman (Ineos Grenadiers) +4:09
- Laurens De Plus (Ineos Grenadiers) +4:32
How the 16th stage of the Giro d'Italia 2023 went
After the rest day, the places in the breakaway group were highly coveted. Around 30 kilometres passed before 17 riders were able to break away from the peloton. Shortly afterwards, nine more chasers caught up, including the Austrian Patrick Konrad from Bora-Hansgrohe. This left 26 riders at the front on the 16th stage of the Giro d'Italia 2023: Aurelien Paret-Peintre, Valentin Paret-Peintre (both AG2R-Citroën Team), Vadim Pronskiy, Christian Scaroni (both Astana Qazaqstan Team), Jack Haig, Jonathan Milan (both Bahrain-Victorious), Cesare Benedetti, Patrick Konrad (both Bora-Hansgrohe), Thomas Champion, Jonathan Lastra (both Cofidis), Ben Healy (EF Education EasyPost), Mattia Bais (Eolo-Kometa), Davide Gabburo, Filippo Magli, Martin Marcellusi, Alessandro Tonelli (all four Green Project - Bardiani CSF - Faizane), Salvatore Puccio, Ben Swift (both Ineos Grenadiers), Derek Gee (Israel-Premier Tech), Carlos Verona (Movistar), Nicolas Dalla Valle, Veljko Stojnic (both Team Corratec - Selle Italia), Michael Hepburn, Filippo Zana (both Team Jayco-AlUla), Toms Skujins (Trek-Segafredo) and Diego Ulissi (UAE Team Emirates).
In the peloton, Groupama-FDJ and Jumbo-Visma endeavoured to keep the gap to a minimum. Aurelien Paret-Peintre, the best-placed rider in the leading group, was only 4:30 minutes behind the pink jersey and even wore it virtually for a while. Ben Healy diligently collected mountain points on the way and took over the Maglia Azzurra from Davide Bais.
Astana duo pulls away
On the climb to Matassone, the third-to-last categorised climb of the 16th stage of the Giro d'Italia 2023, the two Astana pros Vadim Pronskiy and Christian Scaroni left their companions behind and opened up a lead of around one and a half minutes. On the climb to Serrada - the second last climb of the day - Jack Haig broke up the chasing group and the Astana duo was caught again under the pace dictation of the Paret-Peintre brothers. In the peloton, Jumbo-Visma picked up the pace and put many riders in trouble. In the middle of the Serrada climb, however, Primoz Roglic's men pulled away again.
On the final climb to Monte Bondone, the breakaway's lead dwindled rapidly. One by one, the former members of the leading group were caught by the peloton. Jack Haig, Filippo Zana and Carlos Verona were the last three remaining of the 26 riders at the front. They were caught by the group of favourites around 8.5 kilometres before the finish.
Almeida and Thomas team up for the 16th stage of the Giro d'Italia 2023
Joao Almeida set the pace three times in the finale of the 16th stage of the Giro d'Italia 2023. The group of favourites split on the first. Of the classification contenders, only Geraint Thomas, Primoz Roglic and Eddie Dunbar (Team Jayco-AlUla) were able to follow the UAE captain. Behind them, a second group formed around Damiano Caruso (Bahrain-Victorious), which also included Lennard Kämna. With his third attack, Almeida finally pulled away slightly from the competition. With 4.5 kilometres to go, Geraint Thomas attacked and it quickly became clear that Primoz Roglic was not having his best day.
While Thomas and Almeida worked together at the front, Sepp Kuss tried to limit Roglic's time loss. In the end, it came down to a sprint between Thomas and Almeida. 200 metres before the finish of the 16th stage of the Giro d'Italia 2023, the Portuguese rider took off. Thomas tried to hold off, but ultimately had to let his rival go first.
