Giro stage 16: Valverde wins, Kruijswijk confident

Alejandro Valverde collected his first Giro d’Italia stage win, sprinting out of a trio of top riders in an explosive 132-kilometer stage from Bressanone to Andalo, Italy. It came as little surprise that Movistar’s 36-year-old leader would master a race like Tuesday’s, but Giro leader Steven Kruijswijk keeps stunning the competition with his confidence in the mountains.

The LottoNL – Jumbo rider defended his pink jersey on stage 16’s first major climb. And then, the pink jersey put GC rivals like Esteban Chaves (Orica – GreenEdge) and Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) in trouble during the hilly finale, following Valverde’s attack. The Dutchman, 28, even had the audacity to challenge Valverde for the stage win.

“For the pink jersey it’s the perfect situation,” said Kruijswijk, “but I wanted to give the team a win. A winner like Valverde is very hard to beat in a sprint — in the end I’m happy. It was a short stage, but nobody expected it to be so hard.”

Stage 16, top 10 1. Alejandro VALVERDE BELMONTE, MOVISTAR TEAM, in 2:58:54 2. Steven KRUIJSWIJK, TEAM LOTTO NL – JUMBO, at :00 3. Ilnur ZAKARIN, TEAM KATUSHA, at :08 4. Diego ULISSI, LAMPRE – MERIDA, at :37 5. Bob JUNGELS, ETIXX – QUICK STEP, at :37 6. David LOPEZ GARCIA, TEAM SKY, at :38 7. Sergey FIRSANOV, GAZ, at :38 8. Johan Esteban CHAVES RUBIO, ORICA – GreenEDGE, at :42 9. Rafal MAJKA, TINKOFF, at :50 10. Domenico POZZOVIVO, AG2R LA MONDIALE, at 1:47

Top-10 overall 1. Steven KRUIJSWIJK, TEAM LOTTO NL – …

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