A succession of attacks and counter attacks animated the 16th stage of the Giro d'Italia 2013 today. The stage started in France, in Valloire, and finished back in Italy, in Ivrea. In the end, Beñat Intxausti managed to cross the line just ahead of his final breakaway companions without this victory leading to any changes in the top 3 of the general classification.

The summary of the 16th stage of the Tour of Italy 2013: Valloire (FR) > Ivrea

On the day that Mark Cavendish (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) celebrated his 28th birthday, the stage victory in the Giro d'Italia 2013, at the finish in Ivrea, didn't go to the British rider. Fortunately he had his part of the birthday cake and thus a way to celebrate it before the race even started ...

Happy birthday to the Maglia Rossa Mark Cavendish.Send here your best wishes to the fastest rider in the world! twitter.com/giroditalia/st…

— Giro d'Italia (@giroditalia) May 21, 2013

After having blown his candles, Cavendish joined the 179 other riders at the start of this 16th stage in Valloire in France.

The rest day apparently allowed many of the riders to really get some rest after having given everything in the difficult stages last week and the stage start was thus quite nervous with several attacks.

At the initiative of Wilco Kelderman (Blanco Pro Cycling Team) a big breakaway group was formed with no less than 22 riders in it when they already started the descent of the Col du Montcenis, the only big mountain on the programme of today's stage. These leading riders then had a gap which was oscillating around 3 minutes for quite a few kilometers, before going up to its maximum value of 4'40".

On the flat part, Emmanuele Sella (Androni Giocattoli-Venezuela), Ramunas Navardauskas (Garmin-Sharp) and again Wilco Kelderman decided to attack but the big group behind them didn't allow them to really go off.

After a new unsuccessful attempt by Navardauskas at 43 kilometers from the finish, a few kilometers further Emmanuele Sella was at the iniative of a new breakaway group, in which the Italian rider was accompanied first only by Wilco Kelderman and later on also by Danny Pate (Team Sky), but there again, the chasing group comes back on them as they get at the 25 kilometers from the finish point.

It's then up to José Herrada Lopez (Movistar Team) to attack, taking with him Ramunas Navardauskas again, but also Gorka Verdugo (Euskaltel-Euskadi) and about ten kilometers further also Stefano Pirazzi (Bardiani Valvole-CSF Inox) and Fabio Duarte (Colombia).

Several attacks followed rather quickly on the climb towards Ardrate, 3rd category climb and while Stefano Pirazzi shows himself the most active rider in his quest for the points of the King of the Mountains classification, the peloton comes back on this leading group and in the end the leader of the KOM classification gets overtaken by Carlos Betancur (AG2R La Mondiale) who takes the points on top. Pirazzi grabs the 4 points behind him and then immediately sits up.

That's not the case for Betancur who seems to be off with the stage victory in his mind. Thanks to the work of Samuel Sanchez (Euskaltel-Euskadi) and Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) himself, the Columbian rider is taken back by a group of favorites and in the last few kilometers they attack one by one, until a trio with Beñat Intxausti (Movistar Team), Tanel Kangert (Astana) and the Polish rider Przemyslaw Niemiec (Lampre-Merida) gets off. These three riders watch each other to know who will be the first to start the sprint and that turns out to be Niemiec, followed in his wheel by Intxausti who manages to take the victory and in the end the Polish rider lost everything when even Kangert crosses the line before him.

Video summary of the stage

Here's the video summary of this 16th stage of the Giro d'Italia 2013:

The classifications after the 16th stage of the Giro d'Italia 2013

The classification of the 16th stage of the Tour of Italy 2013 - Valloire > Ivrea

Here's the top 10 of today's stage:

1/ Beñat Intxausti (Movistar Team) - 5h52'48"
2/ Tanel Kangert (Astana)
3/ Przemyslaw Niemiec (Lampre-Merida)
4/ Ramunas Navardauskas (Garmin-Sharp) - +0'14"
5/ Cadel Evans (BMC Racing Team)
6/ Franco Pellizotti (Androni Giocattoli-Venezuela)
7/ Michele Scarponi (Lampre-Merida)
8/ Rafal Majka (Team Saxo-Tinkoff)
9/ José Herrada Lopez (Movistar Team)
10/ Carlos Betancur (AG2R La Mondiale)

The general classification after the 16th stage

In the general classification, the top 3 remains unchanged, but we have to notice the bad news for Mauro Santambrogio (Vini Fantini-Selle Italia) because since he was not present in the groupe of favorites in the final part of the race and ended the stage at 2'24" behind the stage winner, the Italian rider loses an additional 2'10" and falls down to the 6th place of the general classification. Here's the top 5 of this classification in which we see Przemyslaw Niemiec (Lampre-Merida) show up instead of Santambrogio:

1/ Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) - 67h55'36"
2/ Cadel Evans (BMC Racing Team) - +1'26"
3/ Rigoberto Uran (Team Sky) - +2'46"
4/ Michele Scarponi (Lampre-Merida) - +3'53"
5/ Przemyslaw Niemiec (Lampre-Merida) - +4'13"

Points classification

A few minor modifications in the points classification after this stage with Cadel Evans (BMC Racing Team) getting even closer to Mark Cavendish (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) by finishing again among the first today and Mauro Santambrogio (Vini Fantini-Selle Italia) who falls down one place in this classification as well:

1/ Mark Cavendish (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) - 109 points
2/ Cadel Evans (BMC Racing Team) - 103 points
3/ Carlos Betancur (AG2R La Mondiale - 85 points
4/ Mauro Santambrogio (Vini Fantini-Selle Italia) - 84 points
5/ Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) - 78 points

King of the Mountain classification

In the KOM classification, Jackson Rodriguez (Androni Giocattoli-Venezuela) moves up to the 3rd place because he reached the top of the Col du Montcenis first, while Stefano Pirazzi (Bardiane Valvole-CSF Inox) continues to defend his jersey:

1/ Stefano Pirazzi (Bardiane Valvole-CSF Inox) - 79 points
2/ Giovanni Visconti (Movistar Team) - 42 points
3/ Jackson Rodriguez (Androni Giocattoli-Venezuela) - 41 points
4/ Carlos Betancur (AG2R La Mondiale) - 32 points
5/ Robinson Chalapud (Colombia) - 31 points

Best young rider classification

No real changes for the young riders, where the top 3 shows the names of riders which are pretty much in the picture during this Giro. The time gaps do grow a little more however:

1/ Carlos Betancur (AG2R La Mondiale) - 68h00'51"
2/ Rafal Majka (Team Saxo-Tinkoff) - +0'05"
3/ Wilco Kelderman (Blanco Pro Cycling Team) - +9'49"
4/ Darwin Atapuma (Colombia) - +15'27"
5/ Diego Rosa (Androni Giocattoli-Venezuela) - +27'07"

door Thomas Vergouwen
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this publication is published in: Giro d Italia | Giro d'Italia 2013

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