Place Name: Strada Provinciale Del Monte Baldo
Address: Strada Provinciale Del Monte Baldo, 38060 Brentonico Trentino, Italy
Details: May 27, 2025
Up until now in this Giro, the GC riders could sit and follow but in the third week of a Grand Tour, there is nowhere to hide. Stage 16 is a mammoth day of climbing, over 4,700M between Piazzola sul Brenta and San Valentino di Brentonico across 203KM. The race leaves the Veneto, gradually gaining elevation all the way to the base of Carbonare, the first climb, after 63KM of racing. After 13KM of climbing, the descent leads the riders into Trento where the category 1 climb of Candriai starts, a 10.5KM, 7.5% climb. Once off of the Candriai, there is an Intermediate Sprint in Cavedine before a 10KM descent into Arco for the start of the Passo Di Santa Barbara which is 12.6KM at over 8%. The Santa Barbara summits with 34KM to go but the difficulties are not done yet. There is a long descent into Mori for the start of 18KM uphill to the finish at San Valentino di Brentonico. The final climb goes up in three steps with brief periods of rest but there should be significant time gaps nonetheless.
As if the day was not hard enough, the rain was coming down quite heavily at the start and was forecasted to continue for much of the day. As with the past few days, the start was aggressive with many riders interested in going up the road. A shocking crash for Gianmarco Garofoli of Soudal Quickstep saw him go over the bars right at the front of the bunch. Somehow, no one else went down and, after a moment, Garofoli was able to remount and get moving again. A group of seven riders had a handful of seconds through the town of Sandrigo, home of retired pro Filippo Pozzato. The group was made up of Lorenzo Germani of Groupama-FDJ, Darren Rafferty of EF-Education EasyPost, Wout van Aert of Visma-Lease a Bike, Josh Tarling of Ineos, Jon Barrenetxea of Movistar, Xabier Azparren of Q36.5, and Josef Černý of Soudal Quickstep. With 178KM to go, Tarling took a fall through a roundabout and slid into the barrier, forcing him to abandon the race.
Attacking continued in the peloton but the gap gradually increased to 90 seconds at 150KM to go with the first climb of the day approaching. 5KM later, the peloton called a truce and resigned that the break was gone. The truce last about 1500M until another attack went. A group of 18 riders got away and just like that, the bunch shut down. The original six leaders had 2 minutes on the first chase group when it went but had it within 1 minute with 3KM still to climb up the Carbonare. The catch was made 1KM before the top and it was Lorenzo Fortunato of XDS-Astana who took maximum Mountains points adding to an insurmountable lead.
The break started the descent with 6 minutes 30 seconds on the peloton. Further down the mountain on the descent, Alessio Martinelli of VF-Group Bardiani CSF-Faizanè crashed and slid under the barriers and down a considerable drop. He was alright but had to abandon the race. Through Trento and on the to start of the Candriai at 97KM from the finish, the break had extended their lead to 8 minutes 30 seconds and looked to be in with a good possibility of fighting for the stage win. Behind in the bunch, a crash took down Richard Carapaz of EF-Education EasyPost and Primož Roglič of Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe. Carapaz was up and back in the peloton quickly but it was one too many crashed for Roglič who stepped off and into the car, abandoning the race.
Ineos started riding pretty hard on the Candriai and slashed the gap to the break. By the time Fortunato crested at 88KM from the finish, the peloton were just 6 minutes down. When the break hit the end of the descent, the skies were clearing with bits of blue shining through but the roads were still wet and required full attention to stay upright. Egan Bernal of Ineos took a spill on a straight piece of road. We did not see exactly what happened but he was up quickly with some scuffs on his right arm and hand. The break worked well and reestablished a lead of 9 minutes through the valley along the Sarca river to the base of the Passo Di Santa Barbara with 47KM to go.
EF-Education EasyPost set the pace in the bunch on the early slopes of the Passo Di Santa Barbara under warm sunshine for the first time today. It wasn't long before riders started to drop but the real surprise came when Juan Ayuso of UAE-XRG, third overall at the start of the day, was distanced. About 7KM from the top, Michael Storer of Tudor Pro Cycling attacked with Max Poole of Picnic-PostNL. There was not an immediate reaction but Simon Yates of Visma-Lease a Bike took to the front and slowly dragged them closer. In the process, Bernal was dropped and the front group was dwindling down to around 10 riders. UAE-XRG took over and set a slightly lower pace that allowed Storer and Poole to get 20 seconds advantage and Bernal to latch back on to the group.
In the break at the top of the Passo Di Santa Barbara with 34.5KM to go, the group was down to Pello Bilbao of Bahrain Victorious, Sylvain Moniquet of Cofidis, Jefferson Cepeda of Movistar, Gijs Leemreize of Picnic-PostNL, Yannis Voisard of Tudor Pro Cycling, and Christian Scaroni and Fortunato of XDS-Astana. They had a lead of 4 minutes 15 seconds as they started the long 16KM descent into Mori. The favorites group went over together with Poole and Storer just ahead.
Voisard did a storming descent and started the 18KM Passo San Valentino with a 20 second head start on the break and 5 minutes on the favorites group. With 13KM to go, Voisard was caught by Fortunato, Scaroni, and Cepeda. 2KM later, Scaroni attacked, forcing Cepeda to do the chasing. Fortunato then attacked and dropped Cepeda and the XDS-Astana pair were together with 8.5KM to go. Scaroni and Fortunato continued up the mountain and came to the finish together, hand in hand, for an XDS-Astana 1-2 with Scaroni taking a well deserved stage win.
In the peloton at the base of the Passo San Valentino, a number of domestiques who were in the break had the opportunity to do some pace setting in the favorites group for their leaders. Barrenetxea, Rafferty, and van Aert all did pulls early on San Valentino. Van Aert did a massive turn which split Adam Yates of UAE-XRG and Poole off the back. Rafal Majka of UAE-XRG took over and knocked the pace just slightly back to allow Adam Yates to get back on. Giulio Pellizzari of Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe went on the attack but he was not a direct threat to the GC and was allowed to ride off. The first real move came from Simon Yates at 9KM to go. Race leader Isaac del Toro and Carapaz were the only two to react. Derek Gee of Israel-Premier Tech dragged Storer and Einer Rubio of Movistar across but the pace was still very high. Simon Yates continued to push which saw Storer and Rubio drop away. Carapaz then made a big move 7KM from the line and got a huge gap right away. 1KM later, Carapaz had 30 seconds on Gee and another 10 seconds on Simon Yates and del Toro with Storer returning to the Yates group to make three chasers. Del Toro cracked 4.5KM from the finish as Yates and Storer danced up the road. At the finish, Pellizzari finish just ahead of Carapaz to take third on the stage. Gee finished 13 seconds behind Carapaz with Storer and Yates another 29 seconds back.
When the times were all calculated, del Toro retained the GC lead by just 26 seconds to Simon Yates. Carapaz sits third at 31 seconds with Gee in fourth, 1 minute 31 seconds behind del Toro with three big mountain days still remaining.
Tags: Giro d'Italia, 2025, Stage 16, May, Giro d'Italia 2025, Piazzola sul Brenta, San Valentino di Brentonico, Lorenzo Germani, Darren Rafferty, Wout van Aert, Josh Tarling, Jon Barrenetxea, Xabier Azparren, Josef Černý, Lorenzo Fortunato, Richard Carapaz, Michael Storer, Max Poole, Simon Yates, Pello Bilbao, Sylvain Moniquet, Jefferson Cepeda, Gijs Leemreize, Yannis Voisard, Christian Scaroni, Adam Yates, Rafal Majka, Giulio Pellizzari, Isaac del Toro, Derek Gee, Einer Rubio