Nairo Quintana (Movistar) won stage 16 at the Giro d’Italia on Tuesday, a brutal mountain stage that featured three massive climbs, cold and snowy weather, and confusion.
Quintana’s effort put him into the race leader’s pink jersey, as Rigoberto Uran (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) finished too far back to retain his lead. Quintana began the day trailing Uran by 2:40 but made up the difference on Tuesday.
Confusion on the Stelvio
With freezing temperatures and snow falling on the Stelvio, the climb was difficult for everyone in the peloton. But the bigger concern was the descent down the other side of the mountain, as the weather and road conditions could have made the descent dangerous.
It was initially reported that Giro organizers neutralized the descent and reports claimed that motos would ride ahead of the various groups on the road to keep their speeds safe — the race’s Twitter feed even made the announcement. But after Cataldo hit the summit first and grabbed a bottle of what was most likely a hot drink, he hit the descent hard and started to put more time between himself and the groups chasing him. There were race vehicles ahead of him, but neither was controlling his speed.
It then became known that organizers never called for the neutralization. The original Tweet from the race’s feed was deleted and a corrected one was posted: “Wrong communication: no neutralization for the descent from the Passo dello Stelvio. Sorry for the wrong information. #giro”
Later in the stage, a report on the race broadcast said the call for a neutralization never went out on race radio. Still, the decision to go on with Tuesday’s stage as planned, not to mention the Stelvio desent, was a controversial one.
The post Quintana climbs into Giro leader’s jersey after stage 16 victory appeared first on VeloNews.com.
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