It was another thrilling but excruciating big mountain day at the Giro d’Italia in the 174-kilometer stage 16 with five categorized mountains and 4,500 meters (14,760 feet) of climbing.

The GC battle hit a climax in the queen stage as expected and provided some big gaps in the leaderboard below Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo) who, even with an ill-timed mechanical, clawed back the deficit and continued his dominance in this year’s Giro. Meanwhile, Trek Factory Racing all successfully finished the harsh day and turned their focus immediately to the next two stages where they will again be at the forefront heading the game.

At the end of a mano-a-mano day, Astana’s Mikel Landa claimed his second mountain stage and climbed into second place overall, while teammate Fabio Aru lost time but managed to hold onto third place.  Contador’s lead increased to a hefty four minutes and two seconds.

Fabio Felline climbs in the breakaway.

The race kicked off with a brutal 13-kilometer climb, and right from the drop of the flag the suffering began as the attacks flew.  However, the breakaway formed on the descent off the first mountain and Fabio Felline unexpectedly found himself in its midst – an unplanned move.

“The breakaway was not in the program. But I raced in the front in the first climb, and in the downhill I went with a good rhythm and passed Contador and made my way to the front two guys. Then all of a sudden I found myself in the break," he said.

The breakaway was given little rope to roam, and with just over 50 kilometers to go it was nullified as the GC battle raged already in full motion behind.  Once caught Felline began thinking about the days ahead, pedaling easy as possible to the finish.

“It was a good experience and good motivation for a day like today because there was nothing else with no sprint or anything,” Felline added. “It was the biggest stage of the Giro and it was nice to be present. When we started the Mortirolo we knew it was impossible because of the fighting behind between Aru and Contador.  For the last bit, I took the grupetto and saved my energy to the finish.”

Tomorrow is a flat stage and a big day for Trek Factory Racing in its search for a stage victory. Giacomo Nizzolo is also locked in a tight fight for the points jersey and it will be a hotly contested and exhilarating stage 17 Wednesday.

Nizzolo explained his strategy for a day like today where it’s all about surviving a juggling act: riding hard enough to get to the finish within the set time limit, while at the same time conserving as much energy as possible.

“My tactic was never to reach my limit, try to stay close to the limit, but never explode. Riding like this, luckily I could stay with the first group almost until Aprica. Then I dropped off a little, but I think I was only a few minutes from the main bunch up the Mortirolo and I could go as easy as possible up that with no stress.

“The big grupetto caught me with 8kms to go. Now I try to start to recover, immediately looking forward to tomorrow. For sure in the last kilometers the feeling in my legs was not the best, a lot of pain, but I think this could be mental because my adrenaline is going and I am really thinking about tomorrow.”

And as for tomorrow, we asked?

“Tomorrow we go for it. My shape is good, I am feeling better every day, and all I can say is we will try 100% tomorrow.”