Giro d'Italia: Christian Scaroni wins stage 16 as Isaac del Toro falters on San Valentino summit finish

A massive upheaval in the Giro d'Italia overall has seen Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates) cling onto pink by less than 30 seconds after rivals Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) and Simon Yates (Visma-Lease a Bike) launched major attacks on the final ascent of the day.

The 202km monster Alpine stage was won by Christian Scaroni after he and teammate Lorenzo Fortunato moved away from a break five kilometres to go, ending Italy's longest drought on stage victories since 2017 with a spectacular two-up victory for XDS Astana.

But the big news of the day long-term came in the GC battle as first Primoz Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) crashed for a fourth time in the race, and abandoned, while Del Toro's teammate Juan Ayuso, previously third overall, lost all chance of overall victory after he cracked on the second last climb, the Santa Barbara.

Del Toro then was forced into serious defensive mode on the final ascent of San Valentino when Carapaz seared his way clear, and things looked even worse when Simon Yates followed suit and dropped the struggling maglia rosa.

The Mexican clung on bravely to cross the line 1:36 down on Carapaz. But overall, with Yates now shortening the gap to just 26 seconds and Carapaz at 31 seconds, as UAE's grip on the overall falters notably, the Giro is looking more wide open than ever.

"I'm really happy about it,"  stage winner Scaroni said, "Me and Fortunato felt really good right from the start, and even when it rained I felt really good."

"We dropped all the other riders and I wasn't sure if Carapaz would catch us. Then in the last kilometre I was really suffering, but we stayed together, and this victory is for the team."

How it Unfolded

The first news of the opening leg of week 3 of the 2025 Giro d'Italia was not even about the stage itself, rather who was taking part. After his crash-ridden opening fortnight and ensuing time losses, Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) surprisingly confirmed his presence, only for disaster to strike later on. 

Then, when racing got underway, seven riders broke away almost immediately despite the appalling weather, amongst them Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike), Darren Rafferty (EF Education-EasyPost), Lorenzo Germani (Groupama-FDJ), Josh Tarling (Ineos Grenadiers), Jon Barrenetxea (Movistar), Mikel Azparren (Q36.5) and Josef Cerny (Soudal-Quick Step). Tarling was forced to abandon after crashing on a roundabout in the first hour, but the other six ploughed on through the rain.

XDS Astana were not overly happy at the prospect of mountains leader Lorenzo Fortunato losing ground to rivals, though, and they launched a major counter-move, allowing a further 18 riders to come across to the day's leaders. Fortunato was amongst them, logically, but also teammates Fausto Masnada and Christian Scaroni, as well as Luca Covili and Alessio Martinelli (VF Group-Bardiani CSF-Faizané), Yannis Voisard (Tudor), the Bais brothers, Davide and Mattia (Polti-VisitMalta), Gijs Leemreize (Picnic-PostNL), Felix Engelhardt (Jayco-AIUIa), Jefferson Cepeda (Movistar), Simone Petilli (Intermarché-Wanty), Kim Heiduk (Ineos Grenadiers), David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ), Dries De Bondt (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), Sylvain Moniquet (Cofidis), Pello Bilbao (Bahrain Victorious) and Simon Gugliemi (Arkéa-B&B Hotels).

Shortly before the summit of the first climb of the day, the Cat.2 Carbonare, the two groups fused, making for a group of 24 ahead. With Fortunato at 48 minutes down overall as the biggest GC threat, the main peloton was content to let the stage leaders get on with it, and over the summit, after the Italian had darted ahead to gain more points, their advantage had yawned to over six minutes.

Regrettably, the drop off the Carbonare proved far more consequential than the ascent, as both Roglič and Martinelli fell and crashed out of the race. Martinelli was transported to hospital after skidding spectacularly at speed on a sweeping right-hand bend, fortunately remaining conscious despite falling into a ravine. But Roglič, whose injuries were also unclear, but merely compounded his previous difficulties, had to quit.

Once past the Candriai, a fearsomely long Cat.1 climb and the third of five main ascents on the day, as yet more riders fell on a course that was proving to be a treacherous skating rink, there was a distinct lull in the GC action. 

The gap between the break and bunch shrank almost of its own volition to just over five minutes on the descent, only to balloon back up to eight on the flat which followed. At the intermediate sprint at Cavendine, Van Bondt and Van Aert briefly went clear just as the sun appeared for the first time in the race, and with a potentially stage-winning margin for the break now emerging for sure, the collaboration became less and less marked amongst the 23 stage leaders.

Come the second last climb, on the Santa Barbara, the break predictably began to disintegrate, with XDS Astana trying to keep the move under control, Van Aert being amongst those immediately affected. Ineos, however, were the team piling on the pressure the most with Castroviejo, only for EF to add on the heat and shred the GC group yet further.

The pace proved too much for Ayuso, fading out of contention with around 45 kilometres to go. Riding steadily and rising in and out of the saddle, Ayuso's near-isolation as he faced his difficulties was a clear indication that UAE were placing all their bets on Del Toro. In the space of less than 500 metres, he was already 45 seconds behind despite Igor Arrieta finally being ordered back to support him. But the way Ayuso was banging on the handlebars in frustration was an indication of a key moment in the overall battle. 

Finally, he lost nearly 15 minutes on the stage, his GC hopes completely gone. Then when Bernal also fell behind, as Simon Yates (Visma-Lease a Bike) upped the pace in person to chase down a move by Michael Storer (Tudor) and Max Poole (Picnic PostNL),  it became even more clear this could be a critical GC day.

Meanwhile, the break had shrunk considerably on the Santa Barbara, leaving just seven riders ahead out of the original 23 - Bilbao, Moniquet, Cepeda, a very active Leemreize, Voisard, Fortunato and Scaroni - but still enjoying having a 4:30 gap. Finally, on one of the last sections of flat of the stage, Voisard opted to go clear and he reached the foot of the monster San Valentino ascent, the decisive climb of the day, alone with a 20-second margin on the six chasers.

With only a victory in the Tour of Hungary in his palmares to date, Voisard was clearly determined to go for the biggest win of his career, doubling that advantage before Scaroni began to chase behind. The smooth, steady slopes in the first part of the 18.2 kilometre ascent, though, quickly enabled Cepeda and mountains leader Fortunato to start to close the gap. 

It was 13 kilometres from the summit where the two XDS Astana racers and Cepeda reached the Swiss racer. Scaroni then zipped away alone in pursuit of Italy's first stage win. Fortunato dropped Cepeda in turn, too, quickly bridging across to his teammate, and safely keeping a margin of 46 seconds on their sole chaser. 

The two then hung on together all the way to the summit, Scaroni suffering notably in the last metres to keep in contact. But finally Fortunato gestured his teammate round, and after a shake of hands, the two crossed the line with Scaroni just ahead.

The GC battle

In the GC group on the San Valentino, EF piled on the pressure yet again in the pink jersey, but the most notable change of pace came thanks to Van Aert, out of the early break but still providing sterling support for teammate Simon Yates. Meanwhile, Del Toro was already relying mostly on just Rafał Majka for support, and the Polish climber and former Tour mountains winner was more than happy to allow a non-GC contender like Giulio Pellizzari (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) to go for his own and clip away from the break. However, the real interest centred on whether Del Toro - increasingly isolated and with no Ayuso to support him in an 11-man GC group - could defend his lead.

Finally, some 8.5 kilometres from the summit, the challenges began to pour in. First, Simon Yates charged away, pulling Del Toro and Carapaz  - clearly not suffering from an earlier crash - with him. Shortly afterwards, Derek Gee (Israel-Premier Tech) bridged across. The climb's radically uneven slopes seemed to be no problem for Yates, accelerating viciously, briefly out of the saddle time and again, but finally it was Carapaz, about a kilometre later, who stomped his way clear. Critically, there was no reaction from Del Toro.

Gee forced his way clear, but Del Toro was not pushing so hard, staying with Yates and the two briefly collaborated as they drew up to the Canadian. Finally, with 4.7 kilometres to go, Del Toro simply could not respond to the Briton's repeated digs and his head swaying, was forced to let his closest GC pursuer go free. Even when Bernal drew up to his back wheel, there was seemingly nothing he could do.

Carapaz forged on, meanwhile, and even if he could not catch Pellizzari for the bonus seconds, he sprinted across the line, in fourth, 1:08 down on the victorious XDS Astana duo. Yates crossed the line in eighth place, 1:52 behind, and the wait to see how much damage had been inflicted on Del Toro began.

Finally, the verdict was that the Mexican had suffered a severe setback, but by no means a complete rout. He crossed the line in 13th place, 2:46 back, enough to retain his overall lead by 26 seconds on Yates. 2019 Giro winner Carapaz, despite his blistering effort on the last ascent, remains in third place, 31 seconds back.

Three mountain stages remain, and after UAE's near-stranglehold on the overall crumbled significantly in just one day of full-on climbing, Del Toro will have a much tougher time holding onto the pink than anyone could have expected 24 hours earlier. The Mexican has been punching above his weight for nearly two weeks now. The big question is - how much longer can he continue to do so?

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