First win in the Giro d’Italia

The quality of Alejandro Valverde continues providing great moments to cycling fans. The Spaniard has achieved an outstanding success in a wild 16th stage of the Giro d’Italia. It was a short day, only 133 km, but it was lived intensely since its first port. With this victory, the Murcian rider has achieved top positions in the three GT.

Valverde moved in Passo della Mendola. Nine riders topped the climb in the front. Among them were Steven Kruijswijk, Vincenzo Nibali, Ilnur Zakarin and the Movistar Team leader. The breakaway has maintained its advantage during the long descent and the initial part of Fai della Paganella, despite the effort behind of Orica-GreenEdge.

In the final part of this climb, Alejandro has selected the group again, getting ahead Kruijswijk, Zakarin and himself. From there to the finish, the good work of the trio has managed to gain 42 seconds on Chaves and 1’47” on Nibali. Valverde also returns to the third position in the overall. Congratulations champion!

Quotes: “It was an amazing victory. We came to the start fully focused, knowing that it was going to be a really demanding stage for us. We had already inspected it back in March, the three of us – Chente, Andrey and myself. The team worked their hearts out to go for victory today and tear the peloton apart. We really dug deep for the victory, we put all means we had to claim it. The split wasn’t forming up into the first ascent, and the race leader and other rivals were insisting a lot. Happily, we were able to open that gap just before the end of the ascent, with Kruijswijk and without Chaves. We went ahead, pulling all the way to the foot of Fai della Paganella – I think we did a great job, all of us up there”.