Tom Dumoulin of Team Sunweb has kept the overall lead at the 100th Giro d'Italia following a Queen Stage of the race in the Alps that will be talked about for years to come and which was won by defending champion Vincenzo Nibali of Bahrain-Merida after a scintillating final descent.
Today's sixteenth stage of the race took in three huge climbs - the Mortirolo, followed by an unprecedented double climb of the Stelvio.
On Sunday's Stage 15 into Bergamo, Dumoulin had made the group containing the overall contenders wait after Movistar's Nairo Quintano, his closest rival on the General Classification, had crashed on a descent.
Today, the tables were turned as the Dutch rider, apparently suffering from an upset stomach, had to stop by the roadside ahead of the final climb, taking off the maglia rosa and lowering his bibshorts to let nature take its course.
Nibali's Bahrain-Merida team attacked, with Quintana following the move, when many watching believe they should have waited.
On the long, snaking descent into Bormio that concluded the 222 kilometre stage from Rovetta, Nibali got away from Quintana and caught Team Sky's Mikel Landa, who had spent most of the stage out on his own at the front of the race.
There were a couple of sketchy moments for Nibali on the way into Bormio, but as the road flattened for the final kilometre, the Sicilian was behind Landa, biding his time, and came round him to take the first Italian win of the race.
Dumoulin, who on the final climb seemed to be slipping out of the maglia rosa, managed to hang on but with Quintana finishing third, has seen his advantage slashed to just 31 seconds.
His rivals, however, will still need to ensure they take more time out of him ahead of Sunday's final time trial in Milan, where among the overall contenders the Team Sunweb rider will most likely take at least some of the time he may have lost.
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43 comments
Dumoulin himself has tweeted that he didn't expect anyone to wait for him at that point in the race... And that he wishes they'd kept the descending prize as he thinks he'd have got it trying to get down the Stelvio!
Who is to say that the GC group had any solid info on Tom's poo situation? . . . and I doubt that situation was solid. Some of us give that kind of thing a good 30 minutes to work out.
It's part of the history of the sport, nibali and roof had better watch out as the excuse that some other minor contender were up the road does not wash. I hope to see both stuck in the gutter many times from now hopefully collected some of the detritus that they are.
ruined a good race for me
He will be OK. Just hang onto the team car.
Its in the rules folks. Never attack when the pink jersey needs the potty.
Still an impressive ride by major Tom - He was isolated, but he didn't crack.
I like TD but did he wait for the Sky team who were wiped out to get back on? No.
However, Nibali is setting himself up for a massive amount of payback. He had better hope he doesn't have any call to drop off the back of the peloton in the near future.
As of the end of this race the UCi should just come straight out and state that waiting for rivals that have fallen, had a mechanical/puncture or bit of bad luck is not allowed.
if you crash out it's your own fault, if you have a mechanical, that's your team/you doing something wrong/not as efficient, if you get a puncture at the wrong moment, that's tough titty.
however if some other twat/noddy takes you out - and let's be honest being physically in the top 200 cycling wise does not automatically qualify you as any good at handling a bike/reading situations/avoiding poor judgment, then you should get given at least the time that you lost by the side of the road. This way there's no, 'you didn't wait for us and now its payback' etc.
Pros that take out others through their sheer incompetance should be fined and given formal warnings with respect to their fuckwittery.
I don't think any of the riders will lose any sleep over today's actions and as Jackson said they had rivals up the road gaining time on them.
It's a race not a mates Sunday spin out.
Poor show.
To me it looked like Quintana was trying to get them to wait a bit. Zakarin was the only one who clearly pulled a dick move on Tommy D. But all the other guys would have had their DS's yelling in the radio that the race was on, Kruijswijk and Amador were up the road and gaining on them in the overall - what were they meant to do? If all the GC guys were in the same bunch when Montezuma came knocking then I'd understand and it'd be a different story, everyone should have waited, but that wasn't the case.
Finally, a comment from someone who understands race dynamics.
An admission of failure from Quintana and Nibali - big Tom was going to smash them!
You can just about justify attacking when Team Sky went down due to the work they'd put in that day and the pace. After TD was quite obvious in slowing down the Peleton for Quintana's bike change you would hope they would afford him the same courtesy.
I'd be sending a Sunweb rider to take them out tomorrow!
I really hope that Nibali bumps into some karma between now and the end of the Giro. Not particularly surprised by Nibali's lack of sportsmanship given his previous antics but expected better of Quintana. My previous support for Dumoulin to win this year's Giro has been strengthened further by today's happenings and I really hope he can hold on until the TT at the weekend.
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