Tuesday’s stage 16 of the Giro d'Italia unexpectedly escalated into a full-bloodied shoot-out between the general classification contenders on the final climb of Andrate but Cadel Evans (BMC) opted to hold his fire and match the moves of his rivals rather than go on the offensive himself and he remains 1’26” off the maglia rosa of Vincenzo Nibali (Astana).

The ascent of the Andrate, 18 km from the end of the 238 km race, forced a selection that included Evans, race leader Vincenzo Nibali and seven of the other eight riders in the top 10. Evans said the finish was equally as hard as the start. "It was a long and hard day with a very hard start, quite hard in the middle and a quite hard final," he said. "Sometimes after the rest day, it's hard to judge how your body will react immediately," he said. "I think a few people had difficulty in the start. Fortunately, my teammates Daniel Oss and Danilo Wyss were there to make up for my shortcomings in the start. Then in the final, I was OK to take care of all the challenges and attacks."

Thursday's mountain time trial from Mori to Polsa should provide Evans with his next chance to take chunks out of Nibali's lead, but it must be remembered that the Italian has looked untroubled in his defence of the maglia rosa so far. Perhaps Evans’ best chance of snatching the maglia rosa from Nibali is to outlast him on the Giro's two queen stages to Val Martello and Tre Cime di Lavaredo at the end of the week rather than an outright assault on the Italian’s lead.