OFFICIAL Stage 16 Results
Laurens De Jong
Hello, Giro d’Italia Gamers!
STAGE Grade: B+
I rate today’s stage a B+. Jonas Vingegaard’s dominance makes for an otherwise mediocre race, mostly saved by the scenery and the big surprise of Giulio Pellizzari’s enormous meltdown.
Route: 5/5 GC: 2/5 Tactics: 3/5 Sprint: 1/5 Surprises: 3/5
If you think of the Swiss as a peace-loving people, you have your European history wrong. The Old Swiss Confederacy in the early 1400s was one of the most belligerent states in Europe. They conquered large areas of what is now Italy, including the area of Ticino, the scene of stage 16 of the 2026 Giro d’Italia. Ticino is the Italian-speaking part of Switzerland. During the Unification of Italy in 1861, Ticino elected to remain Swiss. Their slogan was, and is, “"Liberi e Svizzeri” — Free and Swiss. Walk around Bellinzona or even Lugano, you’ll find memorials to the young men who fought for a unified Italy. Ticino remained Swiss, but it wasn’t a sure thing, and blood was shed before it was all said and done.
What was a sure thing, bloodshed and all, was Jonas Vingegaard’s stage win today. Cycling is a team sport and Team Visma – Lease-a-Bike did their thing perfectly, again. Gone are the days of inexplicable tactics from the Dutch team. Everything today was put together to ensure a Vingegaard win. So it was said and so it was done.
Cycling is a team sport and when one falters, the whole team fails. Red Bull – BORA – hansgrohe was pulling the peloton for what I assume was Giulio Pellizzari. Red Bull had two riders in the top six, Pellizzari and Jai Hindley. But Pellizzari is the home hero and he looked strong, I think they were racing for him today and not Hindley.
Astonishingly, Pellizzari was dropped. By his own team. Panic ensued, the Red Bull riders stopped pulling and Visma took over. There was confusion all over and I saw Aleksandr Vlasov dropping back, presumably to help Pellizzari.
Pellizzari was having a complete jour sans, though — a “day without.” He finished eighteen minutes behind Vingegaard, dropping from sixth to nineteenth overall. In a grupetto with Mick van Dijke, his only teammate there. I assume van Dijke was already in that grupetto. Vlasov finished six minutes ahead of Pellizzari and even Giovanni Aleotti didn’t wait for him. A complete meltdown from a top-ten rider, you don’t see that too often.
The time limit turned out to be a non-factor. Too late I read that the Giro has more lenient time limits than the other grand tours. And the organizers freely look the other way in the valleys when entire grupettos ride behind the team cars. Going “90 km/h,” claimed Oliver Naesen. That may be an exaggeration, but none of the sprinters were in time trouble today. Jonathan Milan can still dream of a repeat Maglia Rosa in Rome.
Oh, that Giulio Ciccone. Another day in a breakaway that was never going to win. He tried, he took KOM points, but two minutes over Jonas Vingegaard was never enough. He lost his temper, 50 kilometers from the end in a feed zone. Unhappy with what his team provided, he threw his bottle back at the hapless soigneur. Violence and anger is never okay, but sometimes it is also objectively funny.
Team Polti – VisitMalta has been in the breakaway thirteen times in sixteen stages of the 2026 Giro d’Italia. Including today, with Ludovico Crescioli. I think, it was hard to tell. Crescioli finished 125th today, in one of the last grupettos. Alessandro Tonelli was our best-placed rider, 48th, together with Pellizzari.
Mattia Bais wore the red bibs today, winner of yesterday’s combattività award. He and Diego Pablo Sevilla lead the fuga competition by incredibly much — surely, we have that one in the bag. There’s an outside chance to win the traguardo volante competition, the intermediate sprints. If so, they’ll will need to be in the breakaway again tomorrow, with no chance to win the stage.
Watch the final kilometers HERE.
Watch the TNT Sports highlights HERE.
Read the TNT Sports report HERE.
Spoiler alert: there were no changes in the standings today.
Team Ansel keeps nibbling at Team Grace’s lead with another win: most points from the stage, most points from classifications, most points overall, and tied for most riders in the Top-25 (nine). Team Grace took second, doing enough every day to make it likely they’ll take the overall win.
Third, at a distance, were for Team Charles, followed by Team Hugo and Team Tadej in fourth and fifth. Team Felix were sixth, with nine riders in the Top-25. Then Team Amalia in seventh and early leaders Team Sam in eighth.
Stage 17 promises to be chaotic. Two category 3 climbs early on and a third one near the finish; an intermediate sprint that is really a categorized climb and the Red Bull KM halfway up that final categorized climb: the sprinters have no chance. That makes the favorite for the stage our friend Giulio Ciccone. So we know who’s not going to win the stage: Ciccone.
By default, that makes Jhonatan Narváez the favorite. I also like Wout Poels, especially seeing his ride on Sunday. But today he sacrificed his legs to finish tenth on the stage. It was a remarkable performance, to be honest. He fought back from twentieth to earn 25 UCI points for his team. But I don’t think he can recover from that and be a factor in stage 17. Thus: Narváez will win yet another stage in this Giro d’Italia.
Standings after stage 16:
|
Rank |
Name |
Points |
WAS |
MOVES |
|
1 |
Team Grace* |
2334 |
1 |
0 |
|
2 |
Team Ansel* |
2235 |
2 |
0 |
|
3 |
Team Sam* |
2087 |
3 |
0 |
|
4 |
Team Tadej* |
2005 |
4 |
0 |
|
5 |
Team Amalia* |
1922 |
5 |
0 |
|
6 |
Team Charles* |
1914 |
6 |
0 |
|
7 |
Team Hugo* |
1813 |
7 |
0 |
|
8 |
Team Felix* |
1625 |
8 |
0 |
Standings after stage 16 (including adults):
|
Rank |
Name |
Points |
WAS |
MOVES |
|
1 |
Team Grace* |
2334 |
1 |
0 |
|
2 |
Team Ansel* |
2235 |
2 |
0 |
|
3 |
Team Amelia |
2196 |
4 |
1 |
|
4 |
Team Julie |
2172 |
5 |
1 |
|
5 |
Team Fran |
2167 |
3 |
-2 |
|
6 |
Team Doug |
2126 |
7 |
1 |
|
7 |
Team Sam* |
2087 |
6 |
-1 |
|
8 |
Team Kent |
2064 |
10 |
2 |
|
9 |
Team Craig |
2048 |
8 |
-1 |
|
10 |
Team Laurens |
2044 |
9 |
-1 |
|
11 |
Team Tadej* |
2005 |
11 |
0 |
|
12 |
Team Corsa |
2003 |
12 |
0 |
|
13 |
Team Amalia* |
1922 |
13 |
0 |
|
14 |
Team Charles* |
1914 |
15 |
1 |
|
15 |
Team Paul |
1912 |
14 |
-1 |
|
16 |
Team Zach |
1845 |
16 |
0 |
|
17 |
Team Adam |
1821 |
17 |
0 |
|
18 |
Team Hugo* |
1813 |
18 |
0 |
|
19 |
Team Jake |
1762 |
19 |
0 |
|
20 |
Team Rob |
1760 |
20 |
0 |
|
21 |
Team Felix* |
1625 |
21 |
0 |
|
22 |
Team Kari |
1532 |
23 |
1 |
|
23 |
Team Kate |
1503 |
22 |
-1 |
|
24 |
Team Jonwaine |
1422 |
24 |
0 |
|
25 |
Team Roslyn |
534 |
25 |
0 |
Complete breakdown of points from stage 16:
|
Name |
STAGE RESULTS |
PINK JERSEY |
PURPLE JERSEY |
BLUE JERSEY |
WHITE JERSEY |
POINTS/CLASS |
TOTAL |
PREVIOUS |
CUM. TOTAL |
|
Team Amalia* |
146 |
34 |
8 |
8 |
1 |
51 |
197 |
1725 |
1922 |
|
Team Ansel* |
194 |
46 |
8 |
12 |
1 |
67 |
261 |
1974 |
2235 |
|
Team Charles* |
169 |
42 |
7 |
8 |
1 |
58 |
227 |
1687 |
1914 |
|
Team Felix* |
164 |
29 |
0 |
8 |
4 |
41 |
205 |
1420 |
1625 |
|
Team Grace* |
186 |
42 |
8 |
12 |
4 |
66 |
252 |
2082 |
2334 |
|
Team Hugo* |
163 |
40 |
3 |
12 |
1 |
56 |
219 |
1594 |
1813 |
|
Team Sam* |
135 |
32 |
12 |
9 |
1 |
54 |
189 |
1898 |
2087 |
|
Team Tadej* |
161 |
37 |
3 |
8 |
4 |
52 |
213 |
1792 |
2005 |
Complete breakdown of points from stage 16 (including adults):
|
Team Adam |
163 |
37 |
3 |
12 |
1 |
53 |
216 |
1605 |
1821 |
|
Team Amalia* |
146 |
34 |
8 |
8 |
1 |
51 |
197 |
1725 |
1922 |
|
Team Amelia |
187 |
46 |
3 |
12 |
1 |
62 |
249 |
1947 |
2196 |
|
Team Ansel* |
194 |
46 |
8 |
12 |
1 |
67 |
261 |
1974 |
2235 |
|
Team Charles* |
169 |
42 |
7 |
8 |
1 |
58 |
227 |
1687 |
1914 |
|
Team Corsa |
169 |
42 |
8 |
12 |
0 |
62 |
231 |
1772 |
2003 |
|
Team Craig |
145 |
32 |
8 |
12 |
4 |
56 |
201 |
1847 |
2048 |
|
Team Doug |
204 |
46 |
3 |
12 |
4 |
65 |
269 |
1857 |
2126 |
|
Team Felix* |
164 |
29 |
0 |
8 |
4 |
41 |
205 |
1420 |
1625 |
|
Team Fran |
144 |
37 |
8 |
12 |
1 |
58 |
202 |
1965 |
2167 |
|
Team Grace* |
186 |
42 |
8 |
12 |
4 |
66 |
252 |
2082 |
2334 |
|
Team Hugo* |
163 |
40 |
3 |
12 |
1 |
56 |
219 |
1594 |
1813 |
|
Team Jake |
132 |
29 |
3 |
12 |
1 |
45 |
177 |
1585 |
1762 |
|
Team Jonwaine |
178 |
33 |
0 |
8 |
0 |
41 |
219 |
1203 |
1422 |
|
Team Julie |
187 |
46 |
8 |
8 |
1 |
63 |
250 |
1922 |
2172 |
|
Team Kari |
162 |
34 |
0 |
12 |
0 |
46 |
208 |
1324 |
1532 |
|
Team Kate |
109 |
25 |
2 |
9 |
1 |
37 |
146 |
1357 |
1503 |
|
Team Kent |
187 |
46 |
3 |
8 |
1 |
58 |
245 |
1819 |
2064 |
|
Team Laurens |
150 |
35 |
8 |
8 |
1 |
52 |
202 |
1842 |
2044 |
|
Team Paul |
162 |
35 |
8 |
10 |
1 |
54 |
216 |
1696 |
1912 |
|
Team Rob |
176 |
42 |
3 |
12 |
0 |
57 |
233 |
1527 |
1760 |
|
Team Roslyn |
27 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
27 |
507 |
534 |
|
Team Sam* |
135 |
32 |
12 |
9 |
1 |
54 |
189 |
1898 |
2087 |
|
Team Tadej* |
161 |
37 |
3 |
8 |
4 |
52 |
213 |
1792 |
2005 |
|
Team Zach |
137 |
31 |
8 |
12 |
1 |
52 |
189 |
1656 |
1845 |
-Laurens.