(Reuters) – Giulio Ciccone went solo in the finale to win the 16th stage of the Giro d’Italia, a 177-km mountain trek between Rivarolo Canavese and Cogne on Sunday, as Richard Carapaz retained the overall lead.
Italian Ciccone attacked from a group of breakaway riders four kilometres into the final climb, a 22.4-km effort at an average gradient of 4.3%, and never looked back.
Ciccone, who wore the Tour de France yellow jersey for two days in 2019, had plenty of time to celebrate his career third Giro stage win before crossing the line one minute 31 seconds ahead of Santiago Buitrago of Colombia, according to provisional timings.
Spain’s Antonio Pedrero took third place, 2:19 off the pace.
Ecuador’s Carapaz survived an early scare when he was involved in a pile-up but he escaped unscathed and was pulled back into the peloton by his Ineos-Grenadiers team mates.
It was then a comfortable ride for the 2019 champion, who retained a nine-second overall lead over Australian Jai Hindley as the top contenders kept their powder dry.
Portugal’s Joao Almeida sits in third place, 32 seconds behind Carapaz.
Monday is a rest day on the Giro.
(Reporting by Julien Pretot; Editing by Clare Fallon)
