Bernal buries his rivals with another show of force
Overall leader Team Ineos rider Colombias Egan Bernal rides in the final ascent during the 16th stage of the Giro dItalia(Image credit: Getty Images Sport)
Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) went into the second rest day at this year’s Giro d’Italia firmly in control after distancing all of his rivals of the final climb on stage 16 to win alone on another epic day of racing that was dominated by rain and freezing temperatures.
The Colombian attacked with just over 21km to go on the Passo Giau to win alone after a long descent and put significant time into every one of his rivals and extend his lead in the race.
All of the other overall contenders lost time with Romain Bardet leading home Damiano Caruso at 27 seconds but it was a disaster of a day for Simon Yates who was distanced before Bernal’s first attack.
The British rider came into the stage as Bernal’s principal rival at 1:33 but finished outside of the top ten after suffering in the brutal conditions. He lost 2:37 on the line and dropped to fifth overall at 4:20.
The stage was shortened from 212km to 153km with the Passo Fedaia and the Passo Pordoi both pulled due to concerns over the poor weather and rider safety but that didn’t stop the GC contenders from going toe-to-toe.
EF Education-Nippo looked to set up Hugh Carthy on the Passo Giau and their efforts reduced the group to just a handful of riders but it was Bernal who split the race well before the summit with only Caruso and Bardet able to mount any form of resistance.
Both Aleksandr Vlasov (Astana-Premier Tech) and Yates were unable to handle the pace on the climb, while Giulio Ciccone (Trek-Segafredo) paced himself just behind Bardet and Caruso for most of the ascent.
By the time Bernal reached the line to take his second win of the race, his rivals were still scattered all over the road. Ciccone crossed the line in fourth 1:18 down, while Carthy came over the line one second later with João Almeida a further two seconds back. Vlasov, who had originally lost time on the climb after getting his jacket caught in his bike, finished 2:11 back.
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In the overall standings Caruso, who came into the race as a super domestique for Mikel Landa, is now Bernal’s closest rival at 2:24, while Carthy, despite his time loses has risen to third at 3:34. Bardet’s valiant efforts were enough to see the Frenchman rise two places to seventh at 5:02. Vlasov remains fourth at 4:18 with Yates the main loser on the day.
Ciccone remains in sixth at 4:31, with Almeida jumping three places to tenth. His teammate Remco Evenepoel suffered dreadfully in the conditions and was dropped well before the overall contenders clashed and came home over 24 minutes down and with his overall ambitions well and truly over for this year.
Daniel Benson was the Editor in Chief at Cyclingnews.com between 2008 and 2022. Based in the UK, he joined the Cyclingnews team in 2008 as the site's first UK-based Managing Editor. In that time, he reported on over a dozen editions of the Tour de France, several World Championships, the Tour Down Under, Spring Classics, and the London 2012 Olympic Games. With the help of the excellent editorial team, he ran the coverage on Cyclingnews and has interviewed leading figures in the sport including UCI Presidents and Tour de France winners.
