Just two days after Giovanni Visconti's fantastic win on the Col du Galibier, Benat Intxausti made it two in a row and three stage wins so far in the Giro d'Italia when he beat Tanel Kangert (Astana) and Przemyslaw Niemiec (Lampre) in a sprint at the end of a surprisingly dramatic 16th stage of the Italian grand tour. Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) finished safely in  a select group of favourites 14 seconds later while Mauro Santambrogio (Vini Fantini) lost more than two minutes to drop from 4th to 6th in the GC

Benat Intxausti has had a Giro of ups and downs. He came close to a stage win in the stage 2 team time trial and 5 days later he took the maglia rosa on the roads to Pescara. However, he did a below-par performance in the following day's time trial and fell out of the top 10.

He bounced back on the climb to Vajont where a gutsy late attack moved him back into the 10 best riders of the race but some hard days in the Alps saw him lose time to some of his major rivals. Today he had the best response to his recent struggles when he won the 16th stage in a three-man sprint.

The stage win came at the end of surprisingly tough day which had by most been expected to be decided by the day's early escapees. 22 riders had gone up the road and for most of the day it looked as if they were going to battle it out for the win.

However, Damiano Caruso (Cannondale) was only 9.57 behind and that forced a number of teams to work in the peloton. First, Astana did not allow the gap to grow beyond the 5 minutes mark and later Radioshack and Katusha who had both missed the move saw the GC positions of Robert Kiserlovski and Yury Trofimov threatened by the Cannondale rider and started to chase.

The diminishing advantage and some bad cooperation in the large front group saw the riders starting to attack each other and at the bottom of the day's only climb, the steep Andrate ascent, with a little more than 20km to go, Emanuele Sella (Androni), Wilco Kelderman (Blanco), Danny Pate (Sky), Stefano Pirazzi (Bardiani), Jose Herrada (Movistar), Grega Bole (Vacansoleil), Gorka Verduo (Euskaltel) and Ramunas Navardauskas (Garmin) were the only riders left in the front.

With a gap below the 1 minute mark, Pirazzi upped the pace immediately and while he was caught back, Sella lost contact with the group. Behind, Radioshack set the tempo on the lower slopes of the climb while Fabio Duarte (Colombia) went on the attack.

The front group continued to attack each other and as a consequence, Bole also had to give up. Duarte was going strongly and passed the dropped riders to catch up with the front group.

Suddenly, the drama started when Michele Scarponi (Lampre) countered a short-lived attack from Giovanni Visconti (Movistar). Nibali and Rafal Majka (Saxo-Tinkoff) were quick to bridge the gap while Cadel Evans (BMC) drew a select group of favourites across. However, both Domenico Pozzovico (Ag2r) and Mauro Santambrogio who had started the day in the top 10, were missing from the move. Tanel Kangert (Astana) immediately moved to the front to set a hard pace to discourage further attacks.

Up ahead, the group started to splinter when Herrada went up the road and only Duarte, Pirazzi, Verdugo and Navardauskas got back on while the remaining riders were all caught. However, the favourites were now breathing down the neck and Pirazzi - who was on a mission to pick up KOM points - dup deep and only Duarte could match his speed.

Behind, Scarponi saw a perfect opportunity to move closer to the podium due to Santambrogio's struggles and he put teammate Przemyslaw Niemiec on the front. When Franco Pellizotti (Androni) and Intxausti attacked a little later, Scarponi was quick to respond but as soon as Nibali saw the Lampre leader in the move, he closed it down.

With 18km to go, Pirazzi and Duarte were caught but the KOM leader tried to accelerate one last time to take the points. However, white jersey wearer Carlos Betancur put down the hammer and soloed off the front, leaving Pirazzi behind in a convincing manner.

The Colombian crested the summit with a solid gap over the peloton which was being led by Pirazzi and now only consisted of the Bardiani rider, Kangert, Nibali, Fabio Aru (Astana), Evans, Pellizotti, Samuel Sanchez (Euskaltel), Scarponi, Niemiec, Intxausti, Duarte, Rigoberto Uran (Sky), Majka and Robert Gesink (Blanco). Sanchez attacked over the top and bridged the gap to the lone Betancur.

Scarponi tried to put his rivals on the pressure on the descent but he was closely marked by Nibali and Kangert. Instead, the race leader himself quickly bridged up to the leaders but when Scarponi, Uran, Evans and Kangert all had caught up with the move, everything came back together.

With 7km to go, the riders had finished the descent and Nibali now allowed Kangert to go for the stage win. The Estonian attacked with Gesink but when Uran also joined the move, the maglia rosa was forced to chase it down himself.

More attacks went off the front but the most successful one came once again from Kangert and Gesink who were joined by Niemiec and Intxausti a few kilometres later. The quartet cooperated perfectly while behind Aru controlled the pace for Nibali.

Pellizotti, Scarponi, Sanchez, Majka and Uran all made short-lived attacks but they were unable to get clear. Up ahead, disaster struck for the always unlucky Gesink who had a mechanical with just 1,5km to go and fell out of the lead group.

Inside the final kilometer, it was clear that Intxausti, Niemiec and Kangert would fight it out for the win. After some initial cat and mouse, Niemiec tried to open a long sprint. When the Pole faded, Intxausti accelerated furiously from third position to take a convincing win ahead of Kangert and Niemiec. Navardauskas - who had got back into the maglia rosa group - won the sprint for 4th ahead of Evans and Pellizotti.

A group containing Kiserlovski, Trofimov and Pozzovivo crossed the line 1.48 behind the winner while Satambrogio lost almost 2.30 to the Movistar rider. Nibali only conceded 14 seconds and secured another day in the maglia rosa.

The race continues tomorrow with the 17th stage which is mostly flat. A climb inside the final 20km could spice things up a little but the most likely outcome is some kind of sprint finish. Starting at 14.15 you can follow the action on CyclingQuotes.com/live.

22 riders on the move

The first stage after the race's final rest day was one of the longest at 238km from Valloire in France to Ivrea in Italy. The stage was by most predicted to be one of the final opportunities for the opportunists and so the race was off to a hectic start.

On the slopes of the big Mont Cenis climb Kelderman attacked and he was later joined by Danny Pate (Sky), Eros Capecchi (Movistar), Jose Herrada (Movistar), Grega Bole (Vacansoleil DCM), Tobias Ludvigsson (Argos), Christian Meier (Orica GreenEDGE), Stefano Pirazzi (Bardiani), Matteo Rabottini (Vini Fantini), Jackson Rodriguez (Androni), Emanuele Sella (Androni), Jose Serpa (Lampre-Merida), Rory Sutherland (Saxo-Tinkoff), Gorka Verdugo (Euskaltel), Pieter Weening (Orica GreenEDGE) and Ramunas Navardauskas (Garmin-Sharp). Later Danilo Di Luca (Vini Fantini), Darwin Atapuma (Colombia), Robinson Chalapud (Colombia) and Damiano Caruso (Cannondale) also joined the move and a little later Francis De Greef (Lotto) and Edoardo Zardini (Bardiani) were the last to get contact.

Astana controls the pace

That made it 22 riders up the road with most teams represented in the move and they were allowed to build up a gap of just below 5 minutes. The presence of Caruso did, however, force Astana to set a rather strong tempo and the quartet of Fredrik Kessiakoff, Paolo Tiralongo, Dmitriy Gruzdev and Andrey Zeits made sure that the gap did not get any bigger.

Rodriguez beat Pirazzi in the sprint for the KOM points on the Mont Cenis and after they had finished the descent, it was clear that there was no real cooperation in the front group. Meier did a huge amount of work for Weening but many riders were just sitting on.

Radioshack and Katusha start to chase

With 70km to go, the script of the stage changed when Katusha and Radioshack started to chase. For many kilometres, Vladimir Gusev, Pavel Brutt, Tiago Machado and George Bennett set a strong pace and the gap started to come down rapidly.

With 54km to go, Sutherland and Pate knew that they had to try something to get rid of Caruso if they wanted any chance to finish off their work with a stage win. That signaled the start of a number of attacks but for a long time, no one was able to get clear.

Sella and Kelderman get clear

With 40km to Sella countered a move and Kelderman bridged across to form a front duo. Pate closed it down after a solo chase while Pirazzi was caught by Bole and Herrada to form a chasing trio. Navardauskas and Verdugo bridged across to that group and so we had a trio being chased by 5 riders.

Di Luca was the first to admit defeat and he fell back to the peloton but moments later the rest of the escapees left between the front groups and the peloton were also caught. With 24km to go, the two front groups merged but the gap continued to fall rapidly due to the hard work by Katusha and Radioshack who were now joined by FDJ and Vini Fantini.

At the bottom of the final climb, the attacks in the front group started and this kicked off an aggressive final from which had predicted that Intxausti would emerge as the day's winner.

Result:

1. Benat Intxausti 5.52.48

2. Tanel Kangert

3. Przemyslaw Niemiec

4. Ramunas Navardauskas +0.14

5. Cadel Evans

6. Franco Pellizotti

7. Michele Scarponi

8. Rafal Majka

9. Jose Herrada

10. Carlos Betancur

General classification:

1. Vincenzo Nibali 67.55.36

2. Cadel Evans +1.26

3. Rigoberto Uran +2.46

4. Michele Scarponi +3.53

5. Przemyslaw Niemiec +4.13

6. Mauro Santambrogio +4.57

7. Carlos Betancur +5.15

8. Rafal Majka +5.20

9. Benat Intxausti +5.47

10. Domenico Pozzovivo +7.34

Points classification:

1. Mark Cavendish 109

2. Cadel Evans 103

3. Carlos Betancur 85

4. Mauro Santambrogio 84

5. Vincenzo Nibali 78

Mountains classification:

1. Stefano Pirazzi 79

2. Giovanni Visconti 42

3. Jackson Rodriguez 41

4. Carlos Betancur 32

5. Robinson Chalapud 31

Youth classification:

1. Carlos Betancur 68.00.51

2. Rafal Majka +0.05

3. Wilco Kelderman +9.49

4. Darwin Atapuma +15.27

5. Diego Rosa +27.07

Teams classification:

1. Team Sky 203.28.32

2. Astana +4.27

3. Blanco +5.21

4. Movistar +5.21

5. Lampre +7.39