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Pogačar is down to his final man Majka and it could be deja vu from Sunday when the race leader launched from his teammates wheel to all but confirm overall Giro victory barring incident.
Bardet is with two teammates on the downhill and they are trying their best to make it back to the peloton before the final climb. He’s around 25 seconds off the back of the peloton.
It’s full gritted teeth for Alaphilippe as he heads towards the final climb of the day up to Monte Pana. It will take quite the effort if he is to make it so expect the peloton to burst into life and chase him down.
10KM TO GO
Costiou leads a chasing trio with Scaroni and Pellizzari just 16 seconds down on the Frenchman. Scaroni sprints for KOM points which could put him into second in that classification, meaning he will likely wear it tomorrow.
UAE look very comfortable in the peloton as they now hit the front of the peloton for Pogačar. This has allowed Alaphilippe to build his advantage again and crest the Passo Pinei with a 40-second advantage.
A final look at the valiant efforts of Alaphilippe in the Dolomites with the peloton now under 30 seconds from his wheel and likely to fight for the stage win.
Costiou has got away from Sanchez who looks to have a mechanical issues. Scaroni is trying to join the Frenchman in pursuit of Alaphilippe.
Rubio was probably near the front too early and let Sanchez pull away again on his own. He was joined by Ewen Costiou (Arkéa-B&B Hotels), who has been one of the most attacking riders at this year’s Giro.
Filippo Zana, who started the day in 8th – one place higher than Rubio – also looks to be struggling.
There is some serious signs in the peloton of action bubbling over. Pogačar is in just his short sleeve jersey now and looking ready for action.
Quintana’s work is done and it is now Sanchez pacing. Rubio should be launching his planned attack soon but who will follow him?
15KM TO GO
Both race leader Pogačar and second place Thomas are staying well towards the front of the peloton in case of any attacks.
Acceleration
The descent has allowed Alaphilippe to regain 30 seconds and establish a gap back out at 1:35 from the peloton but Sanchez is flying in pursuit and the peloton will go significantly faster up the final climb to Monte Pana.
The move from Sanchez has brought Alaphilippe’s gap down to the minute mark. Thankfully for him, he’ll have a small descent section before tackling the last 5km of the long climb but it still looks unlikely that he can make it.
Lots of moves are being made behind Sanchez to try and get a move going – Jan Tratnik (Visma-Lease a Bike) is among them.
Tobias Foss (Ineos Grenadiers) tried to follow Sanchez’s move out of the peloton but is struggling to hold his wheel and looks to now be dropping back.
20KM TO GO
Temperature has dropped significantly as the kilometres tick away on the Passo Pinei.
Four of the other men who attacked in the day, Maestri, Pietrobon, Ballerini and Fiorelli have formed an Italian chasing quartet some 1:30 behind Alaphilippe but they will soon be back in the bunch.
Alaphilippe still leads solo with his advantage at 1:55. He’s still got 25km to go but can he re-find his best form and stay away?
They are all our in rain jackets and with umbrellas but it is good to see some fans still out in pretty grim conditions to welcome the riders.
Andrea Pietrobon (Polti-Kometa) is the next to get away from the now slowed-down peloton, trying to gain more Intergiro points.
Movistar has settled into a tempo behind, allowing Alaphilippe to build his gap after attacking away from his fellow escapees. The two-time world champ is now at 1:41.
30KM TO GO
Now that it looks like a GC day is imminent in today’s finish, here’s how the GC sat heading into the final week of the Giro, powered by FirstCycling.
Alaphilippe leaves Maestri and goes solo in the breakaway. His advantage is only at one minute so he would need to find his best legs to stay away from the Movistar-led peloton which is thinning out behind.
Piccolo and Ballerini are struggling to hold on in the break with the steeper roads starting.
Pogačar won’t be panicking but he is down a key teammate in Mikkel Bjerg.
Average speed has been above 53kph in the shortened stage.
Dani Martínez is being moved into best position by his Bora-Hansgrohe team). Way too long for a move but certainly a good time to get ready.
Gaviria is continuing to do a good job for the climbers in his team with the gap now at 1:12. Here’s a look at the upcoming climb – the 23.3km Passo Pinei with the breakaway quartet just a few hundred metres from the start.
40KM TO GO
Julius van den Berg (DSM-Firmenich PostNL) has abandoned the Giro d’Italia after his heroic fighting performance to finish last on Sunday’s queen stage.
Peloton rolls over the sprint point without much interest in speeding up at all.
No contest at the intermediate sprint in Bolzano with Ballerini rolling over in first. The roads will begin to head uphill again soon so we could see the sprinters try and mop up the last few points in the city.
A day of staying safe and staying warm for race leader Pogačar in the peloton. He could of course win the stage should a breakaway be kept within reach by Movistar but UAE are yet to hit the front to chase.
The race is heading towards Bolzano, capital of the South Tyrol region and also the first intermediate sprint of the stage.
50KM TO GO
Movistar are still leading the peloton as the race heads fully into the valley. Gap to the leaders is at 2:00.
The weather is marginally improving temperature wise but the dreadful rainy conditions means it is going to be a brutally long day in the saddle for those in the peloton.
70KM TO GO
A rider as recognisable in a rain jacket as any thanks to his style on the bike and facial hair. Here’s Alaphilippe launching his move into the day’s breakaway.
Sprinter Fernando Gaviria is the man put to work for Movistar on the front, keeping the gap at just 1:41 from the leaders now.
80KM TO GO
Alaphilippe is with his breakaway companion from stage 12, Mirco Maestri (Polti-Kometa), after the two combined brilliantly as a duo and the Frenchman took a memorable victory.
90KM TO GO
They only have a slim advantage now with the peloton riding at a strong pace behind. It is Movistar on the front as they are unhappy with the configuration.
Juanpe López (Lidl-Trek) and Kevin Vermaerke (DSM-Firmenich PostNL) are among the riders in the counter attack which has just caught Frigo. Davide Ballerini (Astana Qazaqstan) also present.
Here’s the lone leader Frigo on his brave effort out in front. He’s no stranger to a Giro breakaway but he’s yet to be joined as the attacks continue behind him in the peloton.
100KM TO GO
Frigo is still going well out on his own but has an advantage of only eight seconds for now.
110KM TO GO
More counter attacks are coming with blue jersey wearer Simon Geschke (Cofidis) involved.
118.4KM TO GO
Official race distance for the day is 118.4km as the Giro resumed after the second race day.
After a dramatic morning, stage 16 of the Giro d’Italia is finally underway. We’ll be neutral behind the lead race car for now with the flag drop still to come.
Riders are on the line with a possible start incoming from Lasa but there have been murmurings of a possible protest.
More honest words from the peloton as Luke Plapp similarly hits out against organisers as Ben O’Connor had done earlier:
Riders will be getting wrapped up and ready for the restart now with a stage still to content with despite the strange morning. It will only be 120km now and without a dangerous 20km descent to start the day but it will still be far from an easy stage.
Just over 20 minutes to go now until the new start in Lasa.
The revised route for today’s stage:
A reminder that today’s stage is the start of the final week of the Giro d’Italia with Pogačar sitting 6:41 ahead of Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) in second. Catch up with his updates from the rest day below:
Here’s how the Giro saw the total palaver that unfolded this morning:
With some time left until the postponed start, make sure to read this harrowing update on Lizzy Banks’ life and career after she endured a tiresome battle to clear her name from a positive doping test.
Update from that last post: there’s been a change of start location just down the road from Spondigna to Lasa with the start time moved to 14:15 with the flag drog expected at 14:30 CEST (13:30 BST).
We’re around 45 minutes from the new proposed start of stage 16.
Amid all the chaos of the morning, there have been two DNSs after the second rest day:
Full news story on the chaos that descended this morning at the Giro:
Snow, rain, rider protests and confusion end with Umbrail Pass removed from Giro d’Italia stage 16
Race leader Tadej Pogačar and his UAE teammates tried to make light of the messy situation at the start. They were in the popular ski resort Livigno after all.
A look at just how tough the conditions were going to be on the Umbrail Pass as captured by one of the photographers at the Giro.
Here’s some earlier words from Giro d’Italia director Mauro Vegni to RAI:
OK, some information from our team on the ground – the riders are going to do the neutralised section all in cars instead of riding to the tunnel.
Planned start of the stage is now expected to take place from Spondigna at 14:00 CEST. But who can be sure after such a confusing morning.
However, some riders were on the start line for the postponed start time but without the full contingent so headed back to their team buses. Complete confusion in Livigno without anything concrete yet.
There did seem have been a decision made with a neutralised start from Livigno as planned before riding through the Munt la Schera Tunnel into Switzerland and getting back into the team buses.
Slightly less diplomatic but likely the correct words from fourth place Ben O’Connor at the start of the day:
Here’s a look at some of the horrid weather along the route from CN’s head of news Stephen Farrand en route to the finish of stage 16.
Race leader Tadej Pogačar’s confusion sums up this very strange Giro d’Italia morning:
“I don’t know, I honestly don’t know a lot about the situation. From what I can see it is really terrible weather. Already in our hotel, I see snowflakes at 1900m so to go 600 metres more up I think it is full snow so it’s quite dangerous to go downhill,” he told Eurosport before the stage.
Riders appear to standing around in the wet and cold at the start location without any clarity. The Neutralised start in Livigno was scheduled to be in 2 minutes time so that is looking heavily unlikely now.
It is still a miserable situation in Livigno and the confusion is still widespread for the peloton.
However, elsewhere there are reports that the decision is still yet to be made.
There are reports that the decision has already been made to remove the pass, but now RCS must decide how to transport riders to the other side of the pass.
Stage 16 was set to feature the Cima Coppi in light of the removal of the Stelvio pass but the new highest peak – Umbrail Pass – is proving just as treacherous as the Stelvio may have been.
Our own Stephen Farrand snapped a picture of the adverse weather conditions from Livigno where teams were set to sign on at the start of Stage 16.
Whether the stage will continue as planned is still uncertain, but if changes are afoot organisers will be racing to work out a solution to transporting the riders to a position where they could safely begin.
We’re only a few hours into the morning and the Giro has been thrown into chaos as teams have unanimously agreed not to participate in Tuesday’s stage 16 of the Giro d’Italia unless the course is changed to remove the Umbrail Pass.
Buongiorno and welcome to Cyclingnews‘ live coverage of stage 16 of the 2024 Giro d’Italia!
Olivia Martin is a dedicated sports journalist based in the UK. With a passion for various athletic disciplines, she covers everything from major league championships to local sports events, delivering up-to-the-minute updates and in-depth analysis.
