Giro d'Italia 2024 stage 16 GC Update | Tadej Pogacar increases lead even further as Daniel Martinez rises to 2nd at Geraint Thomas' expense

After all the controversy and drama that proceeded the racing getting underway on stage 16 of the 2024 Giro d'Italia, the reduced stage didn't see any lessening in the drama as Tadej Pogacar emphatically made it five Giro stage wins and increased his Maglia Rosa advantage even further.

The UAE Team Emirates star didn't need to do it, but seeing that the race situation was getting very good for him to add that fifth victory, he was ruthless. In truth, Pogacar didn't even have to attack from the peloton. The Slovenian simply kept up the pace when his teammate Rafal Majka pulled away, and soloed across the finish line, passing the remainder of the breakaway one by one with consummate ease.

In addition to the victory, Tadej Pogacar further distances himself from his rivals in the general classification. Behind him though, the rest of the GC hopefuls had differing days. Daniel Martinez is the new 2nd position after beating Geraint Thomas on the final climb, who drops down 3rd after some significant time loss. Both are now more than 7 minutes behind Pogacar however, so there is no fight for overall victory remaining. As far as the rest of the positions are concerned, there are no changes in the Top 10.

The highlight was the performance of Romain Bardet. The Team DSM-Firmenich PostNL rider was left behind when Pelayo Sánchez started an attack in the peloton and Movistar Team began to put pressure on him. However, the Frenchman managed to bravely claw his way back to the peloton in the final kilometres and save his 7th place for the moment.

Elsewhere, Ben O'Connor remains 4th, Antonio Tiberi is 5th, Thymen Arensman is 6th, Filippo Zana is 8th, Einer Rubio remains 9th despite having his team work throughout the day and Jan Hirt closes in 10th.