
Scaroni wins stage 16 as Roglic pulls out on chaotic day at Giro
Stage 16 of the Giro d'Italia was a 203-kilometre ride from Piazzola sul Brenta to San Valentino featuring four brutal climbs totalling up to 4,900m of elevation, with heavy rainfall leading to several crashes.
Scaroni and teammate Lorenzo Fortunato broke away on the final climb, a punishing 12.6km stretch at an average gradient of 8.3%, and built up a sizeable lead to ensure a one-two finish for XDS Astana Team.
Giulio Pellizzari (Red Bull–Bora–Hansgrohe) was third, completing an all-Italian podium.
In the overall standings, Mexican Del Toro is now just 26 seconds ahead of Simon Yates (Visma–Lease a Bike) after running out of steam with three km to go and failing to keep up with the Briton and Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost).
Carapaz, winner of the 2019 Giro d'Italia and a gold medallist at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, started the day over two minutes behind Del Toro but now trails by 31 only seconds after an explosive effort on the final climb.
"At the end we knew it was a real key stage here, I think I went well and I demonstrated what I've worked, everything it's cost me to get here and be here once again," Carapaz said.
"I think in the last few years I haven't had the aptitude, the shape to be here in this moment but that was the motivation to get myself up and go ahead and be here and try it once more.
"And good, I think we're good to give a big battle and go for it."
Earlier on Tuesday, Slovenian Roglic abandoned the Giro d'Italia after suffering another crash on a downhill section alongside Ecuadorian Carapaz.
The 2023 winner's title bid had suffered a major blow after a crash on Saturday, which was his third in a week, with Red Bull–Bora–Hansgrohe's sports director Christian Pomer saying on Sunday the team could decide to pull the 35-year-old out of the race.
Welshman Joshua Tarling (INEOS Grenadiers), the stage two winner, also abandoned the race after a heavy crash.
Roglic and Tarling were among riders to crash on Tuesday, with Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers), Carlos Verona (Lidl–Trek) and Alessio Martinelli of VF Group–Bardiani–CSF–Faizane all losing their footing in the rain.
Martinelli was taken to hospital after the crash, where he was conscious and in a stable condition.
Wednesday's stage 17 is another ride through the mountains spanning 155km from San Michele all'Adige to Bormio, with an altitude gain of 3,800 metres.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Reuters
2 hours ago
- Reuters
Mercedes upbeat after binning suspension upgrade
LONDON, Aug 6 (Reuters) - Former champions Mercedes hope to be challenging for wins again when they return from Formula One's August break after binning a rear suspension upgrade that made the car slower. The upgrade was introduced at Imola in May after George Russell had finished in the top three in four of the first six races. The Briton finished only seventh in that Italian race and Mercedes dropped the upgrade for the next two rounds before bringing it back for Canada, a race Russell won. That proved misleading, and Russell struggled in the following four races until Mercedes reverted to the old package for Hungary last weekend and he finished third. Rookie teammate Kimi Antonelli was also back in the points at the Hungaroring, finishing 10th after three races without scoring. Mercedes boss Toto Wolff said the upgrade would "be ending up in a bin somewhere. "We were misled a bit by the Montreal win... we came to the conclusion it needed to come off, it went off and the car's back to solid form," said the Austrian. Trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin said in a Hungarian GP debrief on Wednesday that the car was now easier to work with and the drivers more confident in attacking the corners. "If we make a new suspension, we're doing it to make the car go quicker... and clearly there's something that wasn't right," he added. "And it's not something that was dead obvious. Otherwise, we wouldn't have had the issue in the first place." Shovlin said the learning would help Russell in his battle with Red Bull's Max Verstappen for third place overall behind the McLaren drivers, and Mercedes chasing second in the constructors'. "Budapest showed that we've got a good car when we land it in the right place," said Shovlin. "And then hopefully there'll be an opportunity to build on our tally of race wins. "We had a great time in Montreal. There's other circuits that are a bit more like that coming up over the remaining 10 races and hopefully we'll have a few more highlights."


The Guardian
2 hours ago
- The Guardian
People reoccupied Pompeii after Vesuvius eruption, archaeologists find
Archaeologists have discovered new evidence pointing to the reoccupation of Pompeii after the AD79 eruption of Mount Vesuvius that left the city in ruins. Despite the massive destruction suffered by Pompeii, an ancient Roman city home to more than 20,000 people before the eruption, some survivors who could not afford to start a new life elsewhere are believed to have returned to live in the devastated area. Archaeologists believe they were joined by others looking for a place to settle and hoping to find valuable items left in the rubble by Pompeii's previous residents. 'Judging by the archaeological data, it must have been an informal settlement where people lived in precarious conditions, without the infrastructure and services typical of a Roman city,' before the area was completely abandoned in the fifth century, the researchers said in a statement on Wednesday. While some life returned to the upper floors of the old houses, the former ground floors were converted into cellars with ovens and mills. 'Thanks to the new excavations, the picture is now clearer: post-79 Pompeii reemerges, more than a city, a precarious and grey agglomeration, a kind of camp, a favela among the still recognisable ruins of the Pompeii that once was,' said Gabriel Zuchtriegel, the director of the site. Evidence that the site was reoccupied had been detected in the past, but in the rush to access Pompeii's colourful frescoes and still-intact homes, 'the faint traces of the site's reoccupation were literally removed and often swept away without any documentation'. 'The momentous episode of the city's destruction in AD79 has monopolised the memory,' said Zuchtriegel. Archaeologists estimate that 15-20% of Pompeii's population died in the eruption, mostly from thermal shock as a giant cloud of gases and ash covered the city. Volcanic ash then buried the Roman city, perfectly preserving the homes, public buildings, objects and even the people who had lived there until its discovery in the late 16th century. A Unesco world heritage site, Pompeii is Italy's second most-visited tourist spot after the Colosseum in Rome, with about 4.17 million visitors last year. It covers a total area of approximately 22 hectares (54.4 acres), a third of which is still buried under ash.


The Guardian
2 hours ago
- The Guardian
Inclusion of butter in UK recipe for cacio e pepe draws outrage from Italian media
One of the UK's most popular food websites has cooked up a storm in Italy after allegedly botching a recipe for the traditional Roman pasta dish, cacio e pepe, drawing diplomatic representations from the main trade association for Italian restaurateurs. A recipe on Good Food, formerly owned by the BBC, which continues to licence the web address – described cacio e pepe, a culinary institution in the Italian capital, as a 'store cupboard favourite' that could easily be whipped up for 'a speedy lunch' using 'four simple ingredients – spaghetti, pepper, parmesan and butter'. The notion that making cacio e pepe is easy was bad enough, but the presence of parmesan cheese and butter has been deemed a cardinal sin. Traditional cacio e pepe contains three ingredients: pasta (usually tonnarelli, a type of spaghetti), pecorino Romano cheese and black pepper. Such is the fury, Fiepet Confesercenti, an association that represents restaurants in Italy, said it would demand a correction from the website in order to 'safeguard this iconic dish'. Furthermore, it has taken up the issue with the British embassy in Rome. The recipe appears to have been on the site for about three months, but despite a couple of readers calling out the butter blunder, it only now seems to have caught the attention of Fiepet Confesercenti, which was also offended by the brief preparation video that runs alongside it showing a chunk of butter being put into a pan. Claudio Pica, the president of the Rome unit for Fiepet Confesercenti, said the association was 'astonished' to see the recipe on such a popular and esteemed food site, adding that letters have been sent to Immediate Media, the site's owner, and the British ambassador to Rome, Edward Llewellyn. 'This iconic dish, traditionally from Rome and the Lazio region, has been a staple of Italian cuisine for years, so much so it has been replicated even beyond Italy's borders,' he added. 'We regret to contradict the historic and authoritative British media, but the original recipe for cacio e pepe excludes parmesan and butter. There are not four ingredients, but three: pasta, pepper and pecorino.' Pica admitted that while some chefs may dabble with the recipe, the main concern is that the website has misled readers by presenting the dish as the original. The Guardian has asked Immediate Media for comment. Italian newspapers have had a field day over the controversy, with the Rome-based Il Messaggero writing: 'Paraphrasing the famous British anthem 'God save the king', Rome restaurateurs are now saying: 'God save the cacio e pepe'.' The Guardian's 2021 recipe for the dish by the food writer Felicity Cloake comprises just pasta, pepper and pecorino. It is not the first time the foreign media has become embroiled in an Italian food row. In 2021, the New York Times published a tinkered-with recipe for another classic Roman pasta dish, carbonara, which included tomatoes. While the description of the recipe, called 'smoky tomato carbonara' and created by Kay Chun, did warn readers that it was not the original, Coldiretti, the Italian farmers' association, lashed out, saying the alteration was 'the tip of the iceberg in the falsification of traditional Italian dishes'. Given that Chun's recipe was again published in 2023, it appears the newspaper was unperturbed by the indignation. Italians often mock foreigners for their interpretation of an Italian recipe, especially pineapple on pizza or mixing pasta with chicken. The New York Times also provoked outrage in the UK in 2018 after publishing a recipe in which it described the yorkshire pudding, a roast dinner staple, as a 'large, fluffy pancake' that was excellent for 'breakfast, brunch, lunch and dessert any time of the year'.