Giro 2021: Bernal wins rain soaked mountain stage to cement lead

image: Cor Vos Egan Bernal strikes on the last climb, the Passo Giau, and he reaches the summit solo. He holds off the chasers in the downhill to Cortina d’Ampezzo and wins the race ahead of Romain Bardet and Damiano Caruso. The Colombian cements his GC lead, the Italian moves up to second place, and Hugh Carthy now sits in third position overall. (Slideshow route/profile)

Results 16th stage Giro d’Italia 2021

1. Egan Bernal (col)
2. Romain Bardet (fra) + 0.27
3. Damiano Caruso (ita) s.t.
4. Giulio Ciccone (ita) + 1.18
5. Hugh Carthy (gbr) + 1.19
6. João Almeida (por) + 1.21
7. Aleksandr Vlasov (rus) + 2.11
8. Gorka Izagirre + 2.31
9. Davide Formolo (ita) + 2.33
10. Tobias Foss (nor) s.t.

11. Simon Yates (gbr) + 2.37
58. Remco Evenepoel (bel) + 24.05

GC after stage 16
1. Egan Bernal (col)
2. Damiano Caruso (ita) + 2.24
3. Hugh Carthy (gbr) + 3.40
4. Aleksandr Vlasov (rus) + 4.18
5. Simon Yates (gbr) + 4.20
6. Giulio Ciccone (ita) + 4.31
7. Romain Bardet (fra) + 5.02
8. Daniel Felipe Martínez (col) + 7.17
9. Tobias Foss (nor) + 8.20
10. João Almeida (por) + 10.01

Race report
A group of riders opens up a gap on La Crosetta. KOM leader Geoffrey Bouchard, Daniel Martin, João Almeida, Vincenzo Nibali, Matteo Fabbro, Felix Großschartner, Louis Vervaeke, Márton Dina, Davide Formolo, Lorenzo Fortunato, Gorka Izagirre, Koen Bouwman, Harm Vanhoucke, Antonio Pedrero, Einer Rubio, Davide Villella, Tanel Kangert, Nicolas Roche, Gianluca Brambilla, Giovanni Visconti, Samuele Zoccarato, Jan Hirt, Jan Tratnik, Diego Ulissi and Amanuel Ghebreuzgabhier.

Bouchard cements his KOM lead at the summit before Izagirre, Almeida, Formolo, Ghebreizgabhier, Nibali and Pedrero distance the other attackers in the descent. The six carve out a maximum lead of 6 minutes.

Pedrero goes alone on the Passo Giau. Formolo and Almeida are the first chasers, but when Bernal accelerates on the lower slopes he overhauls all attackers.

The pink jersey reaches the summit 30 seconds ahead of Caruso and Bardet, which is still the gap when they arrive in the valley.

Another interesting read: route 16th stage 2021 Giro.