A day for the sprinters; and the last chance the sprinters get until next Thursday, and then only one final sprint day after that in Rome, so if Jonathan Milan does well today he becomes odds on favourite to own the Maglia Ciclamino outright with only the need to finish upright in Rome.
Many classy sprinters have been very back seat quiet and unproductive in this tour, it will be interesting to see if any quit after today.
Another stage where the result doesn’t reflect the day. It did end up as a sprinters finish but it very nearly didn’t at times. This Giro seems intent on throwing in curved balls during stages to keep us hooked despite that Pod is way out in front and likely to win. I hope the next couple of days are equally enthralling.
The second individual time trial but this time no hill to slow the pace, and a slight decent along the way for Filippo Ganna to take the win… Spoiler Alert!!
First rider to start is Alan Riou Arkéa - B&B Hotels at 12:40 (UK time)
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One sprinter abandonment today: Phil Bauhaus Bahrain - Victorious (quit to pursue alternative objectives)
153 remaining competitors for todays Stage 14 (ITT)
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Maglia wearers before Stage 14
RoseTadej Pogačar UAE Team Emirates CiclaminoJonathan Milan Lidl-Trek AzzurraSimon Geschke Cofidis BiancaAntonio Tiberi Bahrain Victorious
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Competitors leave in ascending GC order; slowest first to quickest last.
The start times of each competitor is at 1 minute intervals until the final top 15 on GC who start at 3 minute intervals: First rider away at 14:40:00 (UK TIME)
Favourites to win:Filippo Ganna Ineos Grenadiers / 56th on GC start-time 13:35:00
Final rider away:Tadej Pogačar UAE Team Emirate / 1st GC start-time 15:43:00
Infinitely bright and radiant, Desenzano del Garda is located in a strategic position in terms of geography and infrastructure: in fact, it benefits from a well-tested and very active railway connection, which makes it a pivot for reaching nearby Milan, Brescia, Verona and Mantua. A highway exit at a 2-minute drive from the centre and the lakefront makes it even more accessible.
The longest and arguably the most difficult stage of this Giro.
It’s going to hurt
The only consolation is the rest-day tomorrow, and they will need it!
A sizeable breakaway of over 50 riders, gaining mostly a mere 4 to 5 minutes ahead, it contained many class riders obviously out hunting a stage win, some within the break simply wanted to collect KOM points…
Observing the progress of Astana rider, Christian Scaroni; at 64km in he won 1st place and 18 points on the category 2 sprint Colle San Zeno at 64.7km, next at 155km he went on to win 1st place and 40 points at the category 1 sprint on Passo del Mortirolo at 155km.
The next KOM sprint; Passo di Foscagno - a 1st category (that lay within 10km of the final 1st cat summit finish) with a very long climb along the way, the fragmenting breakaway were mostly caught and passed by the GC peloton.
Breakaway rider Nairo Quintana won 1st place and 40 points at KOM spring Passo di Foscagno, with Tadej Pogačar claiming 18 points for 2nd place.
On the brutally steep final climb Tadej Pogačar made the epic solo attack to win the Stage, take more time out of his rivals, and hoovered up a further 50 KOM points.
Meanwhile, Christian Scaroni (Astana) impressively moves up the KOM classification 21 places to gain 4th overall, just 1 point behind 3rd position Quintana, but for all these efforts the overwhelming generosity of 50 KOM points for winning every summit finish is assuring the Maglia Azzurra will most probably remain with this Maglia Rosa.
A harder stage than it looks on profile, and GC guys need to be careful not to overdo it today with tomorrow’s even more difficult mountain stage.
Today looks highly likely another KOM battle for points up the Giogo di S.Maria/Umbrail - 16.7km ‘HC category’ climb, and any stage hunters in the breakaway will need the best of luck to escape then after, however maybe a chance for them if the GC guys go steady to save energy for tomorrow… (?)
RoseTadej Pogačar UAE Team Emirates CiclaminoJonathan Milan Lidl-Trek AzzurraSimon Geschke Cofidis BiancaAntonio Tiberi Bahrain Victorious
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Two non-starters before Stage 16: Danny van Poppel BORA - hansgrohe (unwell) Jenthe Biermans Arkéa - B&B Hotels (due to Stage 15 ravine crash)
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It’s raining! and only 5ºc…
148 riders on the Start-line, and Stage 16 start is delayed!
ATTENTION: CHANGE OF ROUTE
The stage will have its usual start and procedures in Livigno. From there, a parade will start towards the Tunnel Munt Raschera. Once there, the riders will stop and change before the Swiss border. The actual start will take place in Prati allo Stelvio.
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The start has been put back to around 14:00 (CET) (about 13:00hr in UK)
Due to risk of avalanches the revised route avoids the Giogo di S.Maria/Umbrail
The total of points to be divided in the best climbers classification have been reduced to 145 points in total; due to change of route today.
The maximum number of points a rider can score is 66 points.
KOM Sprint (1st cat) Passo Pinei/Panidersattel(12km before finish)40,18,12,9,6,4,2,1
KOM Sprint (2nd cat) Monte Pana(summit finish)26,12,8,4,2,1
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MOUNTAINS CLASSIFICATION AT START OF A SNOWY STAGE 16
Tadej Pogačar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates, 171 pts
Simon Geschke (Ger) Cofidis, 78 pts
Nairo Quintana (Col) Movistar, 65 pts
Christian Scaroni (Ita) Astana Qazaqstan, 64 pts
Dani Martínez (Col) Bora Hansgrohe, 58 pts
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It’s unfortunate the weather has turned nasty and (quite rightly for safety) caused a change of route, however this inadvertently removes a huge amount of KOM points that would have been won within an early breakaway of Maglia Azzurra competitors on the Umbrail Pass.
KOM points are now only awarded towards the end of the race where it’s highly probably they will default to the GC riders group, and notably Tadej Pogačar.
G is riding pretty well, although he took a hit today with virtually all of his top 10 rivals taking time. Yeah, he’s got a decent buffer over 10th place, but I’ll stand by my earlier prediction.
Soudal Quick-Step, in 4:07:44
POINTS CLASSIFICATION AFTER STAGE 12
Tadej Pogačar 
UAE Team Emirates
Lidl-Trek
Simon Geschke 
Cofidis
Antonio Tiberi 
Julian Alaphilippe 
TEAM CLASSIFICATION AFTER STAGE 13
Astana Qazaqstan Team (illness)
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BORA - hansgrohe (unwell)
