Stage 16: Bressanone › Andalo – 132km
The Giro peloton gets back to racing after a much-needed day off with a stage that could see more gaps on GC—but will likely be more of a breakaway battleground than anything.
The climbs aren’t easy, and the first two in particular seem to be rated rather modestly. The first climb has an uphill run-up—all told, the riders will be ascending for the better part of 20km at an average gradient of over 5%. That’s pretty hard for a Cat. 2. The next climb is also given a rating that might have riders underestimating it. More than 10km at over 7%, it’s enough to spur attacks.
All that said, the stage ends with a Cat. 3 that flattens out at the top, which could have the overall contenders hesitant about setting their teams to work. At least in terms of the stage battle, I think the early escapees will have good chance at the win.
That makes predicting Stage 16 quite hard, but I’ll toss a few names out there. Mikel Nieve is one—he’s a great climber with freedom to hunt stage wins, and that’s already netted him one victory in this race. His Sky teammate David López could be in the mix as well.
Darwin Atapuma and Alessandro De Marchi make a nice duo of potential breakers for BMC. Atapuma looks great right now.
Giovanni Visconti would be a terrific pick for this stage, but it could be all hands on deck for Valverde at Movistar right now. If he does get into the breakaway, however, he’s got a great chance.
Tim Wellens and Diego Ulissi are both excellent candidates for the stage win because they could conceivably win this from the break or the peloton. The same is true of Gianluca Brambilla.
Alejandro Valverde is the obvious favorite if this does come down to the bunch, given his speedy finishing kick. Esteban Chaves, Vincenzo Nibali, and Steven Kruijswijk are other potential winners, though it will take a pretty strong attack to make that happen with this finale.
VeloHuman Stage 16 Favorites
1. Mikel Nieve | 2. Giovanni Visconti | 3. Alejandro Valverde