João Almeida wins the 16th stage of the Giro d'Italia, after a sprint in which Geraint Thomas beats on time, but he conquers the pink jersey with 18 seconds ahead of the Portuguese. Detached Primož Roglič who loses the pink jersey and is third in the overall standings.

At the 195th kilometer, eight from the finish, a blaze of Jay Vine on one side serves to take back the fugitives, on the other crumbles the group of bigs. Six remain at the top of the race: Thomas, Roglic, Almeida, Zana, Dunbar and Kuss. Damiano Caruso is not among the first. Shortly after, Joao Almeida attempted the attack. The others for now are a few meters away. Five kilometers from the finish line, Dunbar does not make it and parades: there are four left to play the stage, with Almeida who has only two or three meters of advantage. Thomas goes to pick up Almeida, Roglic can't make it and Kuss has to wait for him.

Today's stage is the first of the great climbs, a fraction of over 200 km with five GPMs. A stage that will certainly change the general classification, it is a real alpine stage, with over 4000 meters of altitude difference distributed in five GPMs, two of which are first category, including the one that leads to the final finish line. Among other things, all the GPMs of the day are included in the last 130 km. At the start with Bruno Armirail in pink, the Groupama-FDJ French has 1'08 on Geraint Thomas (Gb, Ineos-Grenadiers) and 1'10" on Primoz Roglic (Slo, Jumbo-Visma), Andrea Ballerini also definitively renounces the Giro. For the Italian, physical ailments advised him to retire before the start of the 16th stage. At this point the Soudal-Quick Step, who had lost Evenepoel in pink for Covid after the time trial in Cesena, remains with only two riders, the Belgians Serry and Van Wilder. Amanuel Gebreigzabhier, of Trek-Segafredo, was also out. The Eritrean after the fall in the 14th stage of Cassano Magnago succumbs to physical pain. It is retirement number 47 of the Giro. We expect, therefore, the first fight with the knife between the teeth between the big names in the standings, Roglic, Thomas, Almeida, Caruso and maybe some other less expected, are called to show their cards. Ready to go, we start around 11 and after a few km mini escape of 5 riders with an advantage of about 30 "on the group. After 42 km covered and 158 at the finish line with Haig, Pareit-Pentre, Magli, Ulissi and Zana, which groups a total of sixteen escape riders with forty seconds of advantage