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Giro d'Italia Stage 16: Pierre Rolland wins, Tom Dumoulin still leads

First Giro stage win for two-time Tour de France stage winner

Cannondale-Drapac rider Pierre Rolland attacked from the break inside the final 5 kilometres of today's Stage 16 of the Giro d'Italia to ride away to victory in Canazei.

Tom Dumoulin of Team Sunweb remains in the race lead following a 218 kilometre stage from Tirano in which the top positions in the General Classification remained unchanged.

 Rolland, winner of a stage of the Tour de France in both 2011 and 2012, finished 24 seconds ahead of Rui Costa of UAE Team Emirates, with Movistar's Gorka Izaguirre third.

By coincidence, his victory came on the 60th anniversary of the day a stage of the 1957 Giro d'Italia was won by a  French cyclist sharing the same surname - Antonin Rolland.

After today's win, the Cannondale-Drapac rider said: “I'm so happy. I've waited for this moment for such a long time.

"I had a complicated season last year. I've had to try many times to get the victory I was looking for.

"I was in the first breakaway today but it was a good decision to let it go and wait for the next attack after two climbs.

"At the end it was a question of courage. I caught the right moment. It's a huge relief.”

Jan Polanc of UAE Team Emirates was also the highest placed rider in the break and now moves to 10th overall.

Dumoulin said: “I virtually lost the maglia rosa today but we were never worried. We just had to chase harder than we expected. I knew other teams would stress for their jerseys, and come to help. But they waited very long to pull. It was their decision.

"Polanc passed a few riders on GC. My boys did an amazing job and my jersey is safe.”

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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4 comments

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captain_slog | 6 years ago
1 like

Roll on Pierre!

(That's nothing, you should hear my Jungels puns.)

Avatar
Jackson | 6 years ago
6 likes

Well deserved. The guy rides his heart out every day and it's great to see Cannondale nab a second WT win in a week.

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700c replied to Jackson | 6 years ago
0 likes

Jackson wrote:

Well deserved. The guy rides his heart out every day and it's great to see Cannondale nab a second WT win in a week.

This! 

He's always animating the race and it's great to see it finally pay off.  Really pleased for him he was clearly quite emotional at the end

 

 

Avatar
simonmb | 6 years ago
3 likes

Wasn't today stage 17?

 

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