Richard Carapaz on verge of Giro d'Italia lead after nightmare day for UAE

New York Times

27-05-2025

Richard Carapaz is on the verge of snatching Isaac del Toro's pink jersey after decimating his general classification (GC) rivals on Tuesday's stage 16 of the Giro d'Italia.
The Ecuadorian, riding for the American EF-Education first team, launched a destructive attack with 6km left of the climb to San Valentino, powering away from Del Toro and Simon Yates as if launching a last-gasp sprint.
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He is now third on GC, 31 seconds behind 21-year-old leader Del Toro, with British rider Simon Yates second at 26 seconds.
At the head of the 203km stage in South Tyrol, Italian rider Christian Scaroni led an Astana one-two from the breakaway, ending a record 17-stage gap between Italian winners at the race. The result was a major boost for Astana's bid to avoid relegation from the World Tour.
Del Toro, meanwhile, cracked with 4km remaining, eventually finishing 1.36 behind Carapaz on the stage. Yates, who accelerated away from the Mexican at the same moment, was 42 seconds back.
It completed a nightmare day for UAE Team Emirates, after nominal team leader Juan Ayuso was dropped on the ascent of Santa Barbara, the penultimate climb of the day. The Spaniard now sits outside the top 10 after losing almost 15 minutes.
🚂 🇪🇨 He warned us yesterday… #GirodItalia https://t.co/cbI7FcAPl3
— Giro d'Italia (@giroditalia) May 27, 2025
Carapaz, 31, is a past winner of the Giro d'Italia, having won the Maglia Rosa in 2019. Despite his ability in the high mountains, where he is ranked amongst the best pure climbers in the world, questions over his inconsistent form between Grand Tours, as well as his limited time-trialling ability, means he was not considered one of the absolute favourites entering the race.
But with no time-trialling kilometres remaining, and 22,000m of climbing scheduled for the final week, Carapaz is now arguably the race favourite. He soloed to victory in last week's stage 11, in another display of form and strength.
Earlier in the day, Primoz Roglic abandoned the race after crashing for the third time in the past week. The Slovenian slid out at a roundabout but looked to have avoided serious injury.
INEOS Grenadiers' time-triallist Josh Tarling also withdrew, while there was a scary crash for Alessio Martinelli who fell and slid around 10 metres into a ravine. After being taken out on a stretcher, his VF Group-Bardiani team say the 24-year-old is conscious and has been taken to hospital.
Stage 17 will see the riders tackle the brutal Mortirolo climb — which was denounced by Lance Armstrong in 2004 as the most challenging ascent he had ever ridden — before finishing on a plateau.
(Luca Bettini/AFP via Getty Images)