Results Giro d'Italia stage 16 - Jonas Vingegaard cements pink jersey battle with triumphant climb to Carì

Jonas Vingegaard has won stage 16 of the Giro d'Italia. The Team Visma | Lease a Bike rider was the man to beat in the first summit finish of week 3 at the Corsa Rosa; and he established his dominance with the most convincing victory of his race yet.

Starting in Bellinzona, the stage only had 113 kilometers on the menu, the first 25 of which flat. There was a breakaway going up the road, but comfortably controlled by the pace of Lidl-Trek and UAE Team Emirates - XRG who looked to wait until the first climb of the day to launch their leaders to the head of the race.

As the moment arrived around two dozen riders got a gap over the peloton, but on the ascents of Torre and Leontica (both climbed twice) there was a group forming at the head of the race featuring Giulio Ciccone, Diego Ulissi, Chris Harper, Einer Rubio and Jhonatan Narváez. More riders attempted to be part of it, but were reeled in by the strong pace set by Team Visma | Lease a Bike.

The stage was duly controlled by the Dutch team, who never let the gap escalate as they deployed their men at the head of the peloton with a consistently high pace. Narváez' efforts earned him an ascent to the lead of the points classification; and as the riders drew nearer to the climb to Carì - 11.6 kilometers at over 8% - the front group began tearing itself apart.

Without fail, the Visma leadout functioned once again on the final ascent of the day. With Narváez and Ciccone pulling the plug early on, it was Chris Harper who remained out front, carrying his own GC ambitions in hopes of climbing up into the Top10.

Victor Campenaerts and Davide Piganzoli set a hellish pace that decimated the GC group, with Giulio Pellizzari being the first name to get dropped and lose meaningful time.

Before the halfway mark, Jonas Vingegaard was then launched by the Italian and made his move with over 6 kilometers to go. Felix Gall initially tried to follow the attack, but was unsuccessful in his attempt - dropping back into a chasing group led by Egan Bernal and Thymen Arensman.

Vingegaard rode into his first stage win in the pink jersey, gaining over 1:30 minutes on his rivals and cementing his lead in the overall classification.

Felix Gall was second on the day, beating Thymen Arensman, Jai Hindley and the surging Derek Gee - although the differences between all were very limited.