Welcome to the 21st and very last stage of this years Giro d'Italia! We start off outside the Vatican with our hilly last stage of this Giro, where we'll enter the hilly parts of the Lazio Region before going back towards Rome. When back in Rome we will come across the old ruins before finishing off in the outskirts of the capital. It is the final day for our riders to advance in their competitions. It should be an win for our GC leader, but competitions like Points and the Team category still remains unsolved. Let's get going with the last stage of the 2016 Giro!
We start off in the Vatican to leave the city of Rome to wander around the hilly terrain that surrounds the city and the state of Lazio!
The GC battle looks all done, so there is only two things left, the Points jersey and the final stage win!
The contenders for a spot in the break, was to big surprise, only reserved for two riders for now! It could look like the sprinters have hit a big bonus at the end of this stage! There are lots of hills left obviously and there is always the risk of riders attacking on the volatile terrain!
Daniele Dall'Oste Vegard Laengen
We return to the race with 55 km left of the stage and the break is kept at a 4½ minute gap down to the collected pack. Yes, there has been no selection whatsoever and it looks rather dull throughout the field. Hopefully we'll see some action soon! It could look like a massive sprint back in Rome!
We are down on the final climb of today and finally we see an attack for the stage win! It is Kolesnikov trying to break free! In pursuit of the Russian GC contender we have Suaza and Boswell trying to reel the attack back again!
Sergei Kolesnikov Arthur Vichot Lawrence Warbasse Vegard Laengen Daniele Dall'Oste Pieter Serry
On the descent of the climb he joins up with the breakaway riders and a few attackers down from the pack.
However, the riders out front only have 1½ minute down to the pack with 18 kilometers left of the stage! It will be hard for the attackers to gain ground on the flat, but we have a few "fresh" riders up here now!
The pack is unable to follow the fast pace set out front and only to add to that frustration, comes the fact that Warbasse is now going for the attack out front! He leaves a 50 second gap to his fellow attackers, which have managed to maintain the 1½ minute gap. Clearly there are not many riders left to chase the breaks with!
As the American enters the ruins of Rome, he extends his lead now with 1'16 to the other attackers, which have 50 seconds to the pack now! Will we be able to see a 2nd stage win here from the American? If so, it would be very peculiar for a Mountain goat to take two stage wins in two attempts on another terrain!
Lawrence Warbasse leaves the other riders in awe, as he manage to be the next rider to take 2 stage wins! All GC riders are present in their perspective positions around Pluchkin, so it looks like a win for the Moldavian!
Kolesnikov takes 2nd place on the stage, only to once again get close to a stage win. He can rejoice that he despite crashing in the race, weren't as unlucky as others! Vichot takes 3rd place ahead of Laengen, Serry and Dall'Oste.
Michael Van Stayen comes in to finish 7th and misses the Points Jersey with 10 points! It is robbery in bright daylight, but he can only blame himself for not winning the points jersey. Howard follows together with Dzhus and Kwiatek, where they finish off with most of the riders left from 21 hard days of work!
This also means Pluchkin takes both the GC and the Points Jersey from here ahead of Alarcon, who has to make do with 2nd place in both competitions. Madrazo finishes off the podium here at the 2016 edition of Giro d'Italia, Thanks for 3 weeks of "entertaining" racing!
