Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) lost more than a minute to most of the major general classification contenders on a brutal stage 16 of the Giro d’Italia. Roglic is now in third place overall at 2:09 behind the leader Richard Carapaz (Movistar) and is 22 seconds behind Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida), who moved up to second place in the general classification.
The Passo di Gavia may have been removed but the Mortirolo proved enough to dislodge the Slovenian from the group of favourites. Roglic was left isolated in the main bunch as the pace set by Bahrain-Merida proved too much for his teammates.
Roglic himself was dislodged from the group when Nibali attacked on one of the steepest sections of the climb, with 34 kilometres to go. He had teammate Koen Bouwman, who had been in the breakaway, up the road but the Dutchman could provide little assistance when he finally joined up with his team leader.
Fortunately for Roglic, he had the help of Mitchelton-Scott, as they worked to bring back their team leader Simon Yates, who had been dropped a short while earlier on the climb. The Mortirolo takes no prisoners, and Roglic and his new companions could only set their own pace on the steep slopes. Meanwhile, Hugh Carthy, the maglia rosa Richard Carapaz, Mikel Landa and Miguel Angel Lopez would join Nibali up the road.
By the time they reached the top, the gap was over a minute and it grew out further as they picked their way down the technical descent that was slick with the rain that was drenching riders and fans alike.
The brief valley provided some respite for the chasers and they were able to bring their deficit back down below 50 seconds. However, it would expand again inside the final five kilometres as the group ahead grew in numbers with dropped riders joining from the breakaway. By the time they reached the line, the gap was almost a minute and a half and Roglic would slide down to third in the standings.
"What can you say, at that moment it's just try to keep motivated," Jumbo-Visma directeur sportif Addy Engels told Eurosport. "At one point the radio informed us that it was only 40 seconds at the end of the descent so we had the hope that they could continue like that and get closer. In the end, at the front there was a strong group with strong legs and today we just have to be honest and say the best guys were at the front and we were fighting the best that was possible.
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"We won't give up the fight. We have to be honest that today Roglic wasn't with the best climbers and he will have to make some time up on those guys."
Giro d'Italia general classification after stage 16
