Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost) has made the breakaway again on today's stage 16 of Giro d'Italia. He has once again been targeting the climbers' classification points on the race.
Indeed, Healy took a maximum of 40 points on the first climb of the day - Santa Barbara - and that was enough to move him from 4th in the classification this morning, to virtual leader on the road today. That development came after he was this morning awarded the combativity award for Sunday's stage.
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Grand Tour debutant Healy has been facing competition for the climbers' points during today's stage, with four Green Project-Bardiani CSF-Faizanè riders among the 26 man breakaway and trying to team up to beat Healy in the sprints for points at the top of the climbs.
While Davide Gaburri, Filippo Magli, Marin Marcellusi and Alessandro Tonelli were not able to scupper Healy on the first climb, despite a significant effort, they managed to beat him on the second climb of the day.
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However, that climb - Passo Bordala - was only a cat 3 and so Davide Gabburo, who was first over the top, only earned nine points to Healy's four points for being second. Healy now has 152 points in the classification and is leading it from stage 7 winner Davide Bais (EOLO-Kometa) on 144 points, and who is not in the breakaway today.
After the first two climbs today, there were three more to come, including the summit finish climb at the end of the 203km stage from Sabbio Chiese to Monte Bondone.
The breakaway was not being allowed to take a huge lead and had three minutes at the time of writing close to the halfway point of the stage. That means even the strongest men from the large breakaway may not survive to fight for stage honours.
