2016 Giro d'Italia Stage 14 Results & Recap

Stage 14 of the 2016 Giro d'Italia is in the books. The final results and standings are below, followed by our recap of how the race unfolded.

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Race Recap

Chaves wins stage 14 in Corvara

What had been hyped as a battle between Alejandro Valverde and Vincenzo Nibali for the maglia rosa took on a very different aspect in the final kilometres of the Giro d’Italia’s ‘queen’ stage into Corvara. Rather than these former Grand Tour winners, it was Estebán Chaves (Orica-GreenEdge) and Steven Kruiswijk (LottoNL-Jumbo) who took the headlines.

The beaming Colombian Chaves won the stage, outsprinting the Dutchman and Georg Preidler (Giant-Alpecin), who had been in the break of the day along with BMC’s Darwin Atapuma, who was just behind them in fourth.

"I’m really happy. Winning the queen stage in the Giro is really special. This is not only for me, but for the team, who worked really well today. All the guys, the mechanics, soigneurs, people away from the race at the office. Orica-GreenEdge is a big family, thanks to Shayne Bannan, everyone," Chaves said.

"Everyone was riding at their limits. Kruisjwijk started his attack, then I tried to follow. It was a steep climb, and then when we saw Nibali was dropped we started to work together. There’s a lot of this Giro left. This is great but we’ll see what happens tomorrow."

With Nibali more than half a minute in arrears and race leader Andrey Amador almost four minutes down, Kruiswijk took the maglia rosa from the Costa Rican. He now leads Nibali by 41 seconds, with Chaves at 1:32 and Valverde, the day’s big loser, fourth at 3:06.

“I knew I was with Esteban [Chaves], and for the sprint, I knew that he was very fast," Kruijswijk said. "I think I had in my mind to gain more time on my competitors for the GC and it worked out pretty good. I felt really good all day. I knew that this kind of stage would suit me pretty good, after the first mountain stage we had yesterday. Today, I could attack and really had some good power. I was lucky that I had Esteban with me and we could work together. I’m happy to get the pink jersey."

The stage of six mighty climbs came to the boil on the last of them, the second-category Valparola. It was here that Atapuma made his bid for the day’s spoils by dropping breakaway companions Preidler and Kanstantsin Siutsou (Dimension Data). Meanwhile, a kilometre or so back down the mountain, the battle for the pink jersey began to rage.

Nibali made the first thrust, accelerating off the wheel of loyal lieutenant Michele Scarponi. Valverde was right on his wheel, but didn’t respond. Kruiswijk and Chaves were next line and did react, very quickly bridging up to the Astana leader. Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha), Rigoberto Urán (Cannondale) and Rafal Majka (Tinkoff) also made the junction but only after a much longer effort.

No sooner had this trio joined Nibali, Kruiswijk and Chaves than the Colombian attacked. Nibali reeled him in, but couldn’t respond when Kruiswijk immediately countered and Chaves breezed across to the Dutchman.

Atapuma crested the Valparola with a 35-second advantage on Preidler and Siutsou, who turned to see Kruiswijk and Chaves joining them as they reached the summit. Nibali was another 30 seconds behind. The group containing race leader Amador and his team leader Valverde didn’t appear for another two minutes.

BMC’s Atapuma zipped down from the Valparola and began the final five-kilometre climb to the finish at Corvara with his lead just 21 seconds on Kruiswijk, Chaves and Preidler as Siutsou slipped back. The Colombian held his advantage on the steep initial slopes, but in the short dip and gentler gradients that followed the three chasers closed in on him and got on terms with the Colombian just two kilometres short of the line.

Just before the left-hander into the finishing straight, Preidler went to the front of the group and it was the Austrian who opened up the sprint from 200 metres out. But, as they had shown in dropping the other favourites, Chaves and Kruiswijk are currently the race’s strongest riders and they made that edge tell.

Chaves swept by on Preidler’s left to claim the stage win, with Kruiswijk right on his wheel and destined for the pink jersey as the Austrian thumped his bars with frustration.

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