Giro d'Italia MADNESS - Del Toro hangs on to pink by seconds; Ayuso cracks fully; Roglic abandons; Scaroni wins from the breakaway

Stage 16 of the Giro d'Italia has erupted the fight for the overall classification in ways few would've expected. Primoz Roglic abandoned the race; several GC riders crashed; Juan Ayuso cracked completely in the penultimate climb and falls out of the fight for the win; and in the final climb Isaac del Toro cracked and only managed to hold on to the pink jersey by a few seconds over Richard Carapaz and Simon Yates. In the meantime, Christian Scaroni returned to his very best level to take an impressive one-two for Astana.

The stage had 203 kilometers in distance and started under rain, a true nightmare for those suffering from fatigue into the final week of the race. The nightmare proved to be very much true for many riders later in the day... But to start off, there was a vicious fight for the breakaway formation, featuring plenty riders of different specialties.

Wout van Aert, Xabier Mikel Azparren, Josef Cerny, Darren Rafferty, Lorenzo Germany and Jon Barrenetxea went up the road in the flat roads, and right before the first climb of the day a large group separated itself from the peloton behind with David Gaudu, Lorenzo Fortunato and Lorenzo Fortunato featured. The group quickly gained a large gap over the peloton.

Thymen Arensman crashed before the climbs began for INEOS Grenadiers, as did Joshua Tarling who was forced to abandon the race. The British team would suffer further on as Egan Bernal also fell, albeit without big consequences. In the first descent of the day Primoz Roglic and Richard Carapaz also crashed, and the Slovenian ultimately abandoned the race. INEOS Grenadiers stopped pacing after Bernal fell, but throughout the day there was a start-stop action in the peloton with several teams picking it up.

In the penultimate climb of the day, the Passo Santa Barbara, EF's pace in the peloton saw Juan Ayuso drop in a dramatic end to his chances of winning the Giro. Thymen Arensman also struggled. Tudor picked up the pace afterwards, with Michael Storer and Max Poole then going on the attack, forcing UAE to begin pacing in the group after it became clear that Ayuso was out of the fight for the top positions in the race. Out front seven riders went clear: Lorenzo Fortunato, Christian Scaroni, Jefferson Alveiro Cepeda, Yannis Voisard, Gijs Leemreize, Pello Bilbao and Sylvain Moniquet.

Scaroni was showing the same legs he had early in the season, and with 11 kilometers to go he attacked to go solo off the front in the breakaway, with 3:30 minutes of lead over the Visma and UAE-led GC group, whilst Fortunato jumped across to him shortly after. Simon Yates attacked with 7.5 kilometers to go to the finish still, being followed by Del Toro and Carapaz. Gee, Storer and Rubio came across the gap afterwards. With 6 to go Carapaz attacked and for the first time in a while, Del Toro did not have a response.

But the show was not yet over. With the gaps growing exponentially, Del Toro would then crack under the pace of Simon Yates with 3 kilometers to go. Scaroni took the stage win, holding hands with Fortunato in style as XDS Astana Team dominated the finale. Carapaz won around 40 seconds on Simon Yates and around 1:35 minutes on Del Toro.

An update on the overall classification will follow.