Giro d'Italia: Giro d'Italia stage #16: An ill Tom Dumoulin narrowly defends Rosa

Cycling: Tom Dumoulin (Sunweb) has survived what is perhaps the most difficult race of his career. The Dutchman probably struggled with gastrointestinal problems during the 16th stage of the Giro d'Italia. He lost 2:16 minutes to the strong stage winner Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida). The defending champion attacked on the last climb and was able to distance the remaining competitors on the descent. Nairo Quintana (Movistar) finished third 12 seconds later at the Bormio finish. In the overall standings, Tom Dumoulin is now 31 seconds ahead of Nairo Quintana and 72 ahead of Vincenzo Nibali.

1 x Mortirolo & 2 x Stelvio please

on yesterday third rest day the riders were able to recover a little from the exertions of the Giro d'Italia. That should also be necessary, because today the king's stage was on the program. Not only the length of 222 kilometers and the fact that this stage was in the third week of the Giro made the section a great challenge. On the route from Rovetta to Bormio, the well-known mountains Mortirolo and Stelvio (Stelvio Pass) had to be crossed - the Stelvio even got in the way twice.

Numerous attacks on Tom Dumoulin?

After 84,5 kilometers, the riders reached the summit of Mortirolo, which despite its average gradient of 7,6 percent and a length of 12,6 kilometers should not make a decision. The goal was too far away. After 143 kilometers the roof of the Giro, the Cima Coppi, should be reached on the Stelvio. The mountain is 21,7 kilometers long and has an average gradient of 7,1 percent. After that, you drive briefly on Swiss soil before climbing up the Stelvio from another side. The Umbrail Pass is 8,4 kilometers long with a gradient of 13,4 percent. After a 19,5 kilometer descent, the finish in Bormio was reached. Due to Tom Dumoulin's big lead, many attacks were to be expected. If the challengers still want to take the Maglia Rosa from the Dutchman at this year's Giro d'Italia, they had to show their colors today.

Nairo Quintana sends three colleagues into the top group

In addition to the fight for the overall standings, today's victory and a few mountain points were of course also at stake. Therefore, the composition of the breakaway group was of great importance. With an average speed of 50,3 km/h, the pace was correspondingly high in the first hour of the race. 25 riders were able to break away from the peloton, including three teammates from Nairo Quintana (Movistar) in Andrey Amador, Jesus Herrada and Gorka Izaguirre. Tom Dumoulin (Sunweb) sent Laurens Ten Dam up front. With Mikel Landa, Vasil Kiryienka, Philip Deignan and Sebastian Henao, Team Sky was directly represented by four riders in the group. Steven Kruijswijk (LottoNL-Jumbo), Luis Leon Sanchez (Astana), Igor Anton (Dimension Data) and the Austrian Felix Großschartner (CCC Sprandi Polkowice) with his teammate Jan Hirt were also part of the escape. With Kiryienka doing most of the work up front, Team Movistar was able to hold off both up front and back - a perfect starting position for Nairo Quintana.

Nairo Quintana & Tom Dumoulin briefly isolated in the peloton

Since Amador and Kruijswijk, two of the top ten pilots, were in the breakaway group, she wasn't given a big lead. With such a strong cast, this would have been very negligent on the part of the Sunweb team. The German team in the main field received support from the teams FDJ and Trek-Segafredo. When it went up the Stelvio for the first time, the group of favorites was reduced to around 25 men. At the side of Tom Dumoulin was only the German Simon Geschke. But in the end, the Berliner also had to be demolished. Dumoulin was thus isolated in the peloton. It was exactly the same for Quintana, but the Colombian still had three of his helpers up front. The breakaway group was torn apart on the climb. Deignan, Landa, Amador, Izagirre, Anacona, Hirt and Anton were able to break away from their companions. Meanwhile, Bob Jungels (Quick-Step Floors) ordered teammate Laurens De Plus back and now put the Belgian to work for him in the group of favourites.

Tom Dumoulin loses touch

With a deficit of around two and a half minutes, the field slowed down a bit so that some drivers, including helpers from Dumoulin and Quintana, were able to catch up again. Meanwhile, Philip Deignan has done his job in the leading group and dropped back. The Umbrail Pass began and everything awaited the attack from Nairo Quintana. But she didn't come yet. Instead, teams Katusha-Alpecin, Orica-Scott and Bahrain-Merida upped the pace for their captains Ilnur Zakarin, Adam Yates and Vincenzo Nibali. Meanwhile broke up Steven Kruijswijk, Jan Hirt and Mikel Landa from the leading group. Suddenly the spectators saw the Maglia Rosa on the side of the road. Tom Dumoulin threw his bike aside and stripped off his clothes. The Dutchman was probably struggling with gastrointestinal problems. His teammate Laurens Ten Dam was waiting for his captain, but was unable to help him catch up and flew back.

Mikel Landa takes over the mountain jersey

Tom Dumoulin fought his way up the Umbrail Pass alone. He was about 1:15 minutes behind. Surprisingly, he was able to keep this constant. There were no attacks up front, but of course his opponents didn't wait either. Franco Pellizotti (Bahrain-Merida) led the group of favorites closer to the leading trio. When the 39-year-old Italian went out of the lead, his team-mate Vincenzo Nibali attacked. The defending champion pulled away alongside Nairo Quintana, Domenico Pozzovivo (Ag2r) and Ilnur Zakarin. This increase in pace further increased Dumoulin's deficit. Meanwhile Mikel Landa broke away from his two companions at the very front. The Spaniard secured the mountain points and will therefore start tomorrow in a mountain jersey. However, he was not yet sure of the stage win. The quartet gradually collected Kruijswijk and Hirt. At the summit they were only about 15 seconds behind Landa.

Vincenzo Nibali wins - Tom Dumoulin narrowly defends Rosa

A little over two minutes later, Tom Dumoulin also arrived at the top. Mikel Landa bravely fought back on the descent to defend the narrow lead over the quartet, but the strong downhiller Vincenzo Nibali was able to close the gap. Behind them all the drivers had to struggle with the extremely high speed on this long descent. Even Tom Dumoulin could not bring such a high speed onto the asphalt and lost second by second to his competitors. Landa and Nibali arrived together at the destination of Bormio. The two former teammates sprinted out the stage win on the winding route. Vincenzo Nibali prevailed and thus ensured the first Italian success at this year's Giro d'Italia. Quintana lost just 12 seconds in third, Pozzovivo 24 and Zakarin 34. Tom Dumoulin narrowly defended the Maglia Rosa, finishing 2:16 behind the stage winner.

The result of the 16st stage of the 100th Giro d'Italia 2017

The overall standings of the 100th Giro d'Italia 2017 after 16 of 21 stages