LIVE Stage 16 Giro d'Italia 2026 | Ciccone doing his best, but Visma | Lease a Bike are rolling heavy

A day of rest was exactly what the Giro d'Italia peloton desperately needed. But one day is never enough. The riders are back on track, and straight into a tough mountain stage, with a magnificent ride through the Swiss Alps. Will the breakaway riders finally receive the blessing of pink jersey wearer Jonas Vingegaard?

David Bavin-Hobbs, chief-editor of IDL Pro Cycling, brings you all the action live. Scroll down the page for live updates 👇

The race got underway the moment the flag dropped. The first 27 kilometres were mostly flat, which meant that the riders who excel on the flat were quick to make their presence felt. Eleven riders opened up a gap relatively quickly, including Frank van den Broek of Picnic PostNL Raisin.

Still in the mix? Markel Beloki (EF), Simone Gualdi (Lotto-Intermarché), Johan Jacobs (Groupama-FDJ), Chris Juul Jensen (Jayco AlUla), Manuele Tarozzi (Bardiani), Ludovico Crescioli (Polti VisitMalta), Diego Ulissi (XDS-Astana).

Lidl-Trek had only Tim Torn Teutenberg at the front, whereas the plan had been to have climber Giulio Ciccone there. And so the German team positioned Milan and co at the front, with UAE lending a hand: a team with Antonio Morgado in that leading group. A little later, it became clear why the team from the Emirates had made that move: Jhonatan Narváez wanted to be there to pick up the points.

This got things moving again, and the first climb immediately saw Max Walscheid, Simone Consonni and Jonathan Milan of Lidl-Trek drop the pack. Their teammate Ciccone was up front with them, but Visma | Lease a Bike didn’t let the breakaway riders get too far ahead. Despite the fact that riders such as Ciccone and Chris Harper, who is close to the top ten, threw themselves into the fray.

Ciccone also took the mountain points on the first climb of the day, overtaking Van der Lee to move into second place in that classification. And so, with the top ten, the points classification and the mountains classification, all sorts of battles within the race emerged in this sixteenth stage of the Giro. At least, as long as the team of pink jersey wearer Vingegaard allowed it.

The tireless Italian from Lidl-Trek then set off on his own at the front, prompting a response from Harper and Narvaez. Van der Lee also tried to make the move – after Ulissi and Rubio – but, like his compatriot Van den Broek, fell just short. They were caught by the peloton just over fifty kilometers from the finish, which gave the breakaway a maximum lead of one and a half minutes.

At the front, some irritation was already starting to emerge here and there, particularly with Ciccone. He had already made his feelings known several times along the way to Van der Lee and subsequently lashed out at a Lidl-Trek soigneur for not giving him the right provisions to his liking.