Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo Bank) has tightened his grip on the Giro d’Italia. The Spaniard overcame a puncture to finish third on Stage 16, a mountainous, 177-km ride from Pinzolo to Aprica. Mikel Landa (Astana), who began the Giro as a worker bee for teammate Fabio Aru, won the stage in 5:02:51, with Steven Kruiswijk (LottoNL-Jumbo) and Contador finishing second and third, respectively, at 0:38. Contador has extended his overall lead to more than four minutes.

The riders took on cold and rain as well as each other. The stage began with an ascent of the Category 2 Campo Carlo Magno, and many abortive sallies took place. On the descent, Edoardo Zardini (Bardiani- CSF), Franco Pellizotti (Androni Giocattoli-Venezuela), Fabio Felline (Trek), Brent Bookwalter (BMC), David De La Cruz (Etixx-QuickStep), Ruben Fernandez (Movistar), Nikolay Mihaylov (CCC Sprandi-Polowice), Ryder Hesjedal (Cannondale-Garmin), and Przemyslaw Niemiec (Lampre-Merida) escaped. Sander Armee (Lotto-Soudal) and Simon Clarke (Orica-GreenEdge) bridged up to the move separately, and the break of the day had formed. The bunch kept the break on a leash that was never longer than two minutes.

Hesjedal attacked. Bigger news happened behind him, as Contador punctured. Teammate Ivan Basso gave him a wheel, but Katusha began to press the pace. The peloton splintered under the Russian squad’s pressure. With 54 km left, Hesjedal led the Katusha-led part of the peloton by 0:44 and the maglia rosa group by 1:13.

Astana joined Katusha at the front. At the base of the Mortirolo, the lead group, which included Aru and Landa, caught Hesjedal. The maglia rosa group, which included Contador and his Tinkoff-Saxo Bank teammates, were at 0:51.

Contador set out after the Aru-Landa group. The Spaniard caught and dropped Andrey Amador (Movistar) and Carlos Betancur (Ag2r-La Mondiale), and then he did the same to Hesjedal and Yury Trofimov (Katusha). Eventually, the Aru-Landa group, which was composed of the two Astana riders and Kruiswijk, was in sight.

Contador caught the Aru-Landa group and attacked, dropping Aru. Five km from the summit, Aru was 0:17 behind his erstwhile companions. At the summit, with 34 km remaining, the maglia rosa group led Hesjedal and Trofimov by 0:57 and Amador and Aru by 1:49.

On the descent, Trofimov pulled ahead of Hesjedal, and Amador caught the Canadian. With 15 km to go, the maglia rosa group was 1:06 ahead of Trofimov, 1:33 in front of Hesjedal, and Amador, and 1:50 ahead of Aru. Five km later, Trofimov, Hesjedal, and Amador were at 1:09, while Aru was at 1:38.

On the Category 3 ascent to the finish, Landa attacked. Neither Contador nor Kruiswijk could respond. The Astana man rolled up the climb and won easily. Trofimov and Amador crossed the finish line at 2:03, with Hesjedal doing so at 2:10. Aru finished at 2:51, which put Landa into second place overall.

Despite evidence that Landa is stronger than Aru, Astana has not named Landa captain. “I don’t know yet,” Landa said when asked if Aru would be riding for him. “I still haven’t seen the general classification. We have to see how my legs are. I know I’m second overall, but I don’t know the times with respect to Contador. We’ll see how Fabio recovers. It would be good if the two of us could work together against Contador.”

Despite his strength, Landa never considered attacking on the Mortirolo. “To tell you the truth, I had a lot of respect for Aprica,” he said. “There are sidewinds in the valley, and the gradient isn’t very high, so it doesn’t really suit me. We tried to force the pace before the Mortirolo to make Alberto suffer so that catching us would cost him energy. After Alberto had caught us, I saw that Aru wasn’t strong. They told me to go ahead and try to win the stage. The rest you know.”

Contador said that his team demonstrated strength that some observers thought that the Russian squad lacked. “My teammates were extraordinary,” he said. “The entire team dropped back, and we worked together. My pulse rate on the flat was 180. Ahead, they were riding at full gas to open a gap. When I saw that that Astana was organized ahead, I knew I'd start the Mortirolo with a time deficit. When we started the Mortirolo, we were putting out an incredible number of watts. My team took control on Day 1 of this Giro d'Italia, and I think people forget it.” 

In the overall, Contador leads Landa by 4:02 and Aru by 4:52. Stage 17 will not change this state of affairs. The 134-km ride from Tirano, Italy to Lugano, Switzerland will be lumpy at the beginning and at the end. It adds up to a breakaway winning the stage. Who will it be? Check in at www.roadcycling.com and find out!