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3 months ago
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Christian Scaroni won an action-packed stage of the Giro d’Italia on Tuesday, as Isaac del Toro’s rivals cut into his overall lead and favourite Primoz Roglic abandoned the race.
Stage 16 of the Giro was a 203km ride from Piazzola sul Brenta to San Valentino, featuring four brutal climbs totalling up to 4,900m of elevation, with heavy rainfall leading to several crashes.
Welshman Joshua Tarling (Ineos Grenadiers), the stage two winner, also abandoned after a heavy crash. Roglic and Tarling were among riders to come down, with Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers), Carlos Verona (Lidl-Trek) and Alessio Martinelli of VF Group-Bardiani-CSF-Faizane all losing their footing in the rain. Martinelli was taken to hospital after the crash, where he was conscious and in a stable condition.
Scaroni and teammate Lorenzo Fortunato broke away on the final climb, a punishing 12.6km stretch at an average gradient of 8.3%, and built up a sizeable lead to ensure a one-two finish for XDS Astana Team. Giulio Pellizzari (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) was third, completing an all-Italian podium.
In the overall standings, Mexican Del Toro is now just 26sec ahead of Simon Yates (Visma-Lease a Bike) after running out of steam with 3km to go and failing to keep up with the Briton and Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost). Carapaz, winner of the 2019 Giro and a gold medallist at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, started the day more than two minutes behind Del Toro, but now trails by 31sec after an explosive effort on the final climb.
“At the end we knew it was a real key stage here, I think I went well and I demonstrated what I’ve worked, everything it’s cost me to get here and be here once again,” Carapaz said. “I think in the last few years I haven’t had the aptitude, the shape to be here in this moment but that was the motivation to get myself up and go ahead and be here and try it once more. And good, I think we’re good to give a big battle and go for it.”
