Deignan and Roche live to fight on after snow and chaos hit Giro's big climbing stage

The three huge climbs on stage 16 of the Giro d'Italia were testing enough without the elements and chaos making matters worse; though Nicolas Roche did a lot of damage on the second of the day's three mountains.

The most positive thing that could be said for Philip Deignan’s and Nicolas Roche’s day on the Giro d’Italia today was that they survived to fight on.

On one of the very hardest stages of this year’s race, the riders not only had to contend with the three feared climbs of the Gavia, Stelvio and the Val Martello summit finish on the 139km from Ponte di Legnon to Martelltal, but the weather turned, to say the least, nasty.

The elements battered the riders, with snow and rain in freezing conditions. To top that, confusion reigned when conflicting information spread through the peloton about how the field would tackle the first 1.5km of the descent from the Stelvio; the second of the three major climbs of the day.

Some of the riders believed the race would be neutralised, or racing suspended, on at least the first six hairpins while others got no such information about any special approach to that section of the journey from the summit.

The race organisers were forced this evening to release a statement, which was so ambiguous it perhaps raised more questions than it answered.

The organisers said they were simply concerned that the riders safely pass through that hairpinned first section of the descent and that at no point had they suggest racing be suspended.

They added race radio had provided an inaccurate interpretation of the directors’ plans for that section of the route “where visibility was restricted due to low cloud and fog”.

The statement then concluded, somewhat confusingly: “At no point did race radio or the directors of the Giro reference to the possible neutralisation of any part of the descent.”

In the end, that section of the race proved decisive as it was there that eventual stage winner and new race leader Nairo Quintana (Movistar) broke clear with a number of other riders, never to be seen again by those behind.

Because of the controversy caused by the escape moving ahead on the very part of the course that others seemed to believe was neutralised, Quintana issued a statement tonight clarifying his position.

Quintana sprints in for victory at the summit finish and insisted later he had won fairly; on the basis of how fast he went up the final climb rather than any confusion about descending the preceding mountain.

He claimed that at no time had he received any information that hostilities were to be briefly suspended, and insisted he had not attacked at that point anyway.

He said he simply rode over the top of the climb with his team mate Gorka Izagirre, following Europcar’s Pierre Rolland and 2012 winner Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin-Sharp) and they found themselves with a gap.

He noted that while he had broken free going down the second mountain, the gap he pulled out by the finish was gained on the final climb of the day rather than via any opportunism by him earlier in the stage.

With a number of attackers having gone clear early in the stage and others later riding across, by the time the front of the race reached the foot of the Stelvio, the breakaway numbered 10 men.

However, Tinkoff-Saxo chased hard up the climb, with Roche doing a lot of damage as the team sought to protect the 3rd place overall position of Rafal Majka. That driving split the group of favourites and the gap to the breakaway, which had reached 2:40, tumbled sharply.

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Up front, Team Sky’s Dario Cataldo attacked the leaders and he crested the Stelvio first and alone, at the 70km marker.

With the confused message spreading in the bunch that the first part of the descent was to be neutralised, Quintana, Izagirre, Hesjedal, Rolland and his team mate Roman Sicard rode off the front over the top and moved clear.

They mopped up the last few survivors from the original breakaway until just Cataldo remained ahead as they hit the final 18km climb with two minutes advantage on the group they had left, which included race leader Rigoberto Uran (Omega Pharma-Quickstep).

Quintana eventually dropped the others after attacking a number of times, the first surge coming just after the climb had started and when Cataldo was caught.

Hesjedal clung to him for longest, only slipping back in the final kilometre and losing just eight seconds to the winner.

Rolland took third, some 1:13 adrift. And it was after him that things got interesting, with all of the main favourites losing considerable time to new pink jersey Quintana.

The fancied Italian Domenico Pozzovivo (Ag2r) rode well up the final climb in pursuit of the leaders and he finished in 5th place. He lost 3:37 on the day, having been two minutes down at the base of the climb.

The fact the gap grew so much up to the summit added to Quintana’s point that he had done most of the damage, not on the descent of the penultimate climb, but going up the last one.

Of the other favourites, Majka was 7th, losing 4:08, while Uran lost 4:11 and Cadel Evans (BMC) 4:48.

Roche and Deignan came home in a respectable 33rd and 34th place respectively, yet were a whopping 26:35 down on a day when the gruppetto lost 44 minutes.

The stage result means while Quintana had started the day in 5th place overall, some 2:40 down on Uran, he is now in pink and leads his compatriot by 1:41. Evans had begun the day in second place, some 1:03 down on Uran but with 1:37 to spare on Quintana.

He is now third behind the two Colombians; 3:21 down on Quintana and 1:40 off Uran in second place.

Despite Roche’s and later Mick Rogers’ riding to protect Majka’s third place this morning, he has slipped to 5th, 3:28 off pink but only seven seconds down on Evans in third, with Rolland up to 4th just two seconds ahead of Majka.

Tomorrow is a lumpy, rather than mountainous, 208km into Vittorio Veneto which should suit a breakaway.

May 9th-June 1st: Giro d’Italia

May 27th, stage 16: Ponte di Legnon to Martelltal (139km)

General Classification