Giro d’Italia stage 16 LIVE: Jonas Vingegaard striving for stage win on summit finish in the Swiss Alps

Piganzoli is done, and Vingegaard makes his move.

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Now Storer’s distenced by several seconds.

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Storer is almost with them, Gee-West further behind.

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We’re down to just Piganzoli, Vingegaard, Gall, Arensman, Hindley and Bernal

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Gall is losing teammate now, Mühlberger dropped and Scotsman.

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Kuss is done, Piganzoli takes over.

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Eulálio is with O’Connor, 30 seconds behind. Pellizzari is much further down the road.

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Kuss has taken over from Campanaerts.

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Eulálio, O’Connor and Pellizzari have all been dropped, but Vingegaard, Hindley, Arensman and Gall are all still there.

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It’s still Campanaerts leading the peloton, which he’s reduced down to just 15 riders.

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Harper was caught earlier, but is hanging on to the back of the GC group.

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There’s set to be some big changes to the top of the GC – that’s 3 of the top 8 dropped already!

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Eulálio is with O’Connor, who hasn’t appeared to have improved following his bad end to the second week.

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Eulálio is struggling, he’s being dropped!

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What has happened with Red Bull? Pellizzari has blown up completely, all while they were setting the pace. They’ve since swung off and left it to Visma to lead, but they can’t have expected the Italian to be dropped so early.

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Already the peloton is greatly reduced, with maybe about 20 or 30 riders left in it. Campanaerts is pulling the group for Visma-Lease a Bike.

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They’re teammates are looking behind them to try to see where he’s gone.

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Problem for Red Bull – Pellizzari has been dropped, while they were leading the pace!

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Rubio is caught, leaving just Harper out front.

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Harper starts the climb, and as do the peloton 35 seconds later, led by Red Bull.

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Magli was able to do so as the pace had slowed in the peloton, presumably as they no longer had to work to be sure of bringing the break back. But it’s up again now as Red Bull take over as they approach the start of the climb.

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Filippo Magli attacked out of the peloton to take 2nd place at the Red Bull KM.

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Harper has dropped Rubio on the approach the Red Bull KM, which the former takes. So we now have just the one rider still up the road.

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(Image credit: Getty Images)

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This is a big day for Red Bull-Bora Hansgorhe. They believe their two GC leaders Hindley and Pellizzari are fit and firing again, and have their eyes on rising up the GC.

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Narváez has dropped out the back of the peloton already. Mission accomplished for him today, with the maximum points at the intermediate sprint sealed. That competition could have a thrilling finish to it.

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And now Ciccone has had enough! He’s sat up and dropped back to his team car.

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Meanwhile Narváez has given up the ghost, and sat up out of the breakaway.

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Decathlon are really taking this on. They’ve put a man to lead the peloton and are helping bring this break yet closer.

The break’s hopes of holding on for the stage are looking doomed already. As the final climb approaches, they have a lead of only 1:15.

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One of Gall’s main rivals for a podium spot is Thymen Arensman. During the rest day ,he spoke about the difficulties he finds in committing to a full GC bid.

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Decathlon are also helping Visma set the pace in the peloton. That’s a big statement on behalf of Felix Gall, who will have his eye on moving up to second overall, and perhaps the stage win too.

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The lead quartet’s advantage is remaining about the same, at 1:50.

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Ulissi never managed to get back on to the break after being dropped near the summit. So Ciccone, Rubio, Harper and Narváez are the only riders left in the front group.

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(Image credit: Getty Images)

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And the new KOM rankings, with just one climb to come:

1 Vingegaard 161

2 Ciccone 129

3 Van der Lee 83

4 Rubio 77

5 Gall 72

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The new Maglia Ciclamino standings. There are now just two points in it at the top.

1 Magnier 145

2 Narváez 143

3 Milan 78

4 Stuyven 71

5 Silva 70

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(Image credit: Getty Images)

And Narváez does indeed take them, with nobody else in the group having a purpose to challenge for them.

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The intermediate sprint that Narváez has had his eye on all day is coming up imminently. He’s managed to stay in the front group, so looks set to get them.

The break has at least managed to increase its lead by a little on the descent. It’s just shy of two minutes.

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Though Vingegaard said before the stage that he [didn’t] want to go for every stage’, he did also mention his intention ‘to try to win a stage in the pink jersey’. Based on how his Visma team is riding today, he intends to make today that day.

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Giulio Ciccone, who’s clearly frustrated with how this stage is panning out.

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Rubio puts in a big sprint this time, but again is deafeated by Ciccone.

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Rubio accelerates towards the top, and Ulissi has been dropped.

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You wonder if he’s displacing that anger from towards Jonas Vingegaard. As things stand the Dane is what stands between him and a shot at winning the stage, and the King of the Mountains classification.

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Ciccone doesn’t look happy. He takes a bottle from a soigneur, but throws it away in disgust – it’s unclear why.

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Christen’s move is over too, he’s been caught.

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The riders dropped from the original break, like Van der Lee and Zana, have been caught by the peloton.

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Jan Christen has used the climb to attack out of the peloton.

The break’s lead is down to just 1:15.

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The break swing right onto the narrow – and steep – road that marks the beginning of the Leontica climb.

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The gap to the peloton is coming down again, as Visma up the pace in the peloton. It’s down to 1:23; this must be very frustrating for the break.

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(Image credit: Getty Images)

The updated KOM rankings:

1 Vingegaard 161

2 Ciccone 111

3 Van der Lee 83

4 Gall 72

5 Rubio 69

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The rider are now taking on the same descent, leading up to a second ascent of the Leontica.

They’ve reached the top, and once again Ciccone takes the points, followed by Rubio. He didn’t have to accelerate quite so explosively this time.

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This is a very decorated group that’s leading the race. Between these five riders, they have a grand total of 18 Giro stage wins on their palmares.

The leading quintet are 1:40 ahead of the peloton, which is the biggest lead anyone has had all day. They’ll need to keep increasing if they’re to have a chance at the stage win though.

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Van der Lee is trying to bridge up to Ciccone, Rubio, Harper, Narváez and Ulissi, but struggling a lot, and is 20 seconds behind.

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The break on the previous climb.

(Image credit: Getty Images)

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Ulissi is chasing the leading trio.

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At the last climb, Rubio, Van der Lee, Harper Narváez and Zana took the points behind Ciccone. Here’s what the virtual KOM rankings look like now as a result:

1 Vingegaard 161

2 Ciccone 102

3 Van der Lee 83

4 Gall 72

5 Rubio 65

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Once again, there’s no space between the bottom of the descent and the start of the third climb. This one lasts 4.7km at 5.6%, and they’ve begun it already.

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Ciccone’s been joined by Harper and Narváez.

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Ciccone is building his lead – he’s now 22 seconds up on the rest of the break.

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Ciccone attacks for them, and Ciccone takes them. Rubio followed his wheel for second

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They’re nearing the summit, both Ciccone and Van der Lee will want the KOM points.

This lead group of 6 have 55 seconds on the peloton.

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Those five riders are Ciccone, Rubio, Zana, Van der Lee and Narváez.

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Harper is riding at the front of the race ,and barely anyone is able to follow this pace – he only has five riders left with him.

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Up ahead the break is breaking up, with riders being dropped.

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Tim Rex is at the front for Visma, and he’s pulling some more pain faces again – a sign that they are chasing, not just riding tempo.

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They’ve finished descending and are now abruptly going uphill again, for the 3km, 8.2% Leontica.

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The 13-man lead group in full:

Ciccone, Harper, Van der Lee, Narváez, Christen, Ulissi, Rubio, López, Kench, Hatherley, Van den Broeck, Zana and Tonelli

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Visma lead the peloton and are keeping the break pegged at about 30 seconds for now.

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Of concern to Soudal-QuickStep and Magnier will be Narváez. He’s only 14 points behind in the Maglia Ciclamino, and there’s an intermediate sprint coming up later today before the final climb with his name written on it.

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Of concern to some will be Harper’s presence in the breakaway. He’s only 7:58 down on GC in 13th, and will be a threat to some riders’ top ten placeings.

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Christen was one of the riders to join this group along with his teammate Narváez, as well as Kench, Ulissi, López and Zana.

This group is looking promising – they’ve managed to grow their lead to 20 seconds on the peloton.

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The lead 8 have been joined by a few other riders – including Jhonatan Narváez.

Ciccone sprints for the points, and Ciccone takes them.

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The summit is nearing – who will go for the KOM points?

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(Image credit: Getty Images)

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There are 8 riders in this lead group – Ciccone, Van der Lee, Rubio, Harper, Hatherley, plus a Bardiani, Polti and Picnic rider.

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Ciccone and Van der Lee are among them.

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About 7 riders have gone clear at the front.

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Meanwhile at the back, the Grupetto is forming. Milan and Magnier have dropped out of the peloton.

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The peloton has caught the back of the group, but it’s so big that there are still riders at the front of it a few second ahead.

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Visma aren’t happy with this group, and have a rider at the front of the peloton pacing.

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But the peloton is mere seconds ahead of them, and other riders are firing out of it to try and join the leaders.

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The chase group has caught the break, as they start the climb.

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The road gets harder still, the gradient rising to 5.6% for the next 4.7km as they start the first official climb of the day.

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More riders and groups are jumping out of the peloton to try and join the chase group. It’s all getting pretty chaotic!

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All this is seeing the break’s lead plummit, to just 12 seconds.

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He’s caught, the peloton slows, and another UAE rider counters, this time Christen.

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Jhonatan Narváez is one of those UAE riders, and he’s made a move.

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There are a few Bardiani and Polti riders in this group too, plus Van der Lee in the blue jersey.

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Along with Arrieta, multiple other UAE riders are in this group, and some Lidl-Treks and Visma-Lease a Bikes.

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The road is going stedily uphill, which will make it easier for sttronger climbers to bridge the gap to the break.

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That Lidl pace has forced a split, about 20 riders going clear from the rest of the peloton.

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Arrieta is the UAE rider, and behind Lidl are chasing again.

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The pace slows down in the peloton for a few moments, but now a UAE rider has attacked.

The break is holding the chasing peloton, and have increased their lead a little to 25 seconds.

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Both Lidl and UAE actually have men in the break, in Teutenberg and Morgado respectively, but can’t be hopeful of their chances winning the stage on the summit finish, as they continue to chase.

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In the break, Beloki stands out as the best climber, as well as being easily the highest ranked rider on GC, in 18th at 11:33.

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At the moment the peloton is winning the pursuit they’ve brought the gap down to 20 seconds.

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This is a proper pursuit between the breakaway, who are desperate to stay out, and the peloton, which is being pulled along by both UAE and Lidl.

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The breakaway up the road.

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Lidl are contributing with UAE now, but it’s still looking like a big ask to bring them back – they’re 38 seconds behind.

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It’s still not over – UAE are next to lead the peloton with Bjerg.

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Lidl might have given up the ghost! They’ve sat up and no other team is taking it on in the peloton.

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Right now the break has 30 seconds, with Lidl still leading at the front of the peloton.

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That might be a big group, but it’s not one made up of riders with the kind of pure climbing legs that will be necessary to win on finish like today’s.

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The 11 riders up the road are: Beloki, Ulissi, Jacobs, Oliveira, Morgado, Van den Broeck, Juul-Jensen, Gualdi, Teutenberg, Crescioli and Tarozzi.

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Not yet – Lidl don’t seem happy with it and have put Milan at the front to pace the peloton.

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11 riders have come together at the front and the rest of the peloton has regrouped. Could this be the break of the day?

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6 more riders have joined them, including Beloki and Ulissi, while there are multiple groups strewn across the road behind.

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Jacobs has gone again, this time with Tarozzi and Nelson Oliveira.

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They’ve all been brought back.

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Van der Lee has two riders with him: Naberman and Jacobs.

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The first attacker is Van der Lee. He’s wearing the blue jersey, but is only wearing that jersey in reserve from Jonas Vingegaard who leads the mountains classification. He’ll be after the points on offer today to take that jersey outright.

And they’re off!

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It was announced this morning that Pascal Ackermann has withdrawn from the race, but the other 157 riders who finished in Milan have taken to the start today.

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The mountain top finish ensures this is one for the climbers, but the opening 25km are flat, so it will be interesting to see which riders manage to get into the breakaway at the start. There are still no less than 17 teams without a stage win at the race yet, and so desperation to do so will be reaching fever pitch in the peloton, and therefore another big fight to get into the break is on the cards.

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The riders at the start, for what is another hot and sunny day at the Giro.

(Image credit: Getty Images)

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Here’s our preview of the stage.

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How will Visma-Lease a Bike ride today? While they were intent on bringing the breakaway back last Saturday to set Vingegaard up for the stage win, they’re often happy to cede the stage win to the breakaway on late mountain stages like this, so may chose to take it easy at the font provided no GC threat manages to slip into the break.

(Image credit: Getty Images)

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The flag has just been waved for the unofficial start, greeted by the usual fanfare of Europop and a fast talking Italian announcer on a mic.

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While Vingegaard has a big lead of 2:26 at the top of the GC, the riders immediately behind him are far more closely clustered together. Between Afonso Eulálio in second and Michael Storer in seventh, the time gap is only 2:20, and therefore there are plenty of opportunities for changes in the GC, starting today.

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For Jonas Vingegaard, having seized the Maglia Rosa with a crushing win on Saturday, the final week is all about seeing the victory home. He’ll have one eye on the Tour de France, which he intends to ride as fresh as possible, but will still have a difficult final week to negotiate to seal victory here.

(Image credit: Getty Images)

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(Image credit: Getty Images)

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To get to the summit finish today, the riders will cross the border into Switzerland to take on a fearsome climb to Carì. Like the stage to Pila last Saturday, and to the Blockhaus during the first week, this one is a proper mountain, and only the best climbers will be able to cope with its 8% gradient stretched out over 11.6km.

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We hope the riders are all fresh and raring to go after their rest yesterday, as a typically tough final weeks get underway with a brute of a mountain top finish.

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Hello and welcome to stage 16 of the Giro d’Italia!