‘The confidence is there’ – Weather hit stage 16 of Giro d’Italia no dampener for Julian Alaphilippe

Team Soudal-Quick Step's French rider Julian Alaphilippe rides in a breakaway during the 16th stage of the 107th Giro d'Italia cycling race, 206km between Livigno and Santa Cristina Val Gardena on May 21, 2024. (Photo by Luca Bettini / AFP)
Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal-QuickStep) out the front solo during the wet stage 16 of the Giro d'Italia 2024 (Image credit: Getty Images)

Julian Alaphilippe may have broken his near three-year Grand tour stage win drought with the stage 12 Giro d’Italia victory but the Frenchman is clearly not done yet, with even the miserable conditions not enough to deter him from going out early in pursuit of victory again on stage 16.

Alaphilippe broke away at less than 30km into the 120km day of racing – shortened by the weather-induced removal of the Umbrail Pass. First he was out front with Davide Ballerini (Astana Qazaqstan), Andrea Piccolo (EF Education-EasyPost), and Mirco Maestri (Polti-Kometa), then he went it alone with 30km to go, off in pursuit of a second win at his debut Giro. 

Simone Giuliani
Australia Editor

Simone is a degree-qualified journalist that has accumulated decades of wide-ranging experience while working across a variety of leading media organisations. She joined Cyclingnews as a Production Editor at the start of the 2021 season and has now moved into the role of Australia Editor. Previously she worked as a freelance writer, Australian Editor at Ella CyclingTips and as a correspondent for Reuters and Bloomberg. Cycling was initially purely a leisure pursuit for Simone, who started out as a business journalist, but in 2015 her career focus also shifted to the sport.