Giro d'Italia 2024 Stage 16

May 21, 2024 Drama at the Giro. Snow and freezing cold temperatures set onto the route causing conversations back and forth between the riders, RCS, and the CPA. RCS made a proposition, the CPA refused and the riders went on strike. The race did get underway a few hours later. The route was compressed to just the final 118KM. Marco Frigo of Israel-Premier Tech was the first attacker and dangled at 15 seconds ahead of the peloton for 20KM. Frigo was caught and countered by Mirco Maestri of Polti-Kometa, Julian Alaphilippe of Soudal Quickstep, Davide Ballerini of Astana, and Andrea Piccolo of EF-Education EasyPost. Movistar started to ride, keeping the break's gap at a maximum of 2 minutes. By the time the break hit the slopes of the Passo Pinei, they had just 1 minute. With 21KM to go, Pelayo Sánchez of Movistar attacked from the peloton as Alaphilippe went solo at the front, 1 minute and 20 seconds up the road. Nairo Quintana of Movistar moved to the front of the peloton doing a hard pull. Sánchez was brought back in the process. Alaphilippe went over the top of the Passo Pinei, 10KM from the finish, with 40 seconds on the peloton. Christian Scaroni of Astana came across next for the Mountains points. He took enough to assume second place in that classification behind Tadej Pogačar. Giulio Pellizzari of Bardiani-CSF Faizanè, Ewen Costiou of Arkéa-B&B Hotels joined Scaroni on the descent, breaking clear of the peloton. Alaphilippe was caught by the trio at 5KM to go but the peloton were only 20 seconds behind, winding things up. Costiou and Pellizzari were the last two standing as they hit the steep final 2KM. Pellizzari went clear with 1.5KM to go. Pogačar attacked at 1.3KM to go and it wasn't long before he caught Costiou, Pellizzari was next at 700M and was dropped quickly. Pogačar crossed the line in the rain and cold for his fifth stage win of the race. Pellizzari held on for second place. From the remnants of the GC group, Dani Martinez of Bora-Hansgrohe was best of the rest, coming in next for third. Geraint Thomas of Ineos lost enough time to drop back to third place overall, moving Martinez to second.