Giro d'Italia 2023 Stage 16 recap: Geraint Thomas back in pink after Joao Almeida wins on Monte Bondone

The Frenchman won't get his win today - he's gone the same way as his Groupama team-mate Armirail. Hugh Carthy will be next - he's in a world of pain on the back. Vine and McNulty are going big guns for UAE and there are only three more escapees up the road now.

The pink jersey finally pops and the Frenchman drops like a stone off the back. Further up the road, Swift and Ulissi have been dropped. They take a breather before no doubt trying to help out Thomas and Almeida when they come through imminently.

Their chances of contesting for the win are next to nothing and now it's a matter of whether any of them can now lend a hand to team-mates coming up behind.

Joao Almeida has Formolo, Vine and Sunday's winner Brandon McNulty setting the tempo on the front now. The pink jersey is right on the back now and really struggling alognside Hugh Carthy and Einer Rubio. Just ahead of them we have the likes of Pinot, Dunbar and Kamna. It's building up to a crescendo... someone is going to light the torch paper soon.

Derek Gee is the latest of the escapees to be caught by the pack. And that's it for Rohan Dennis - the Aussie veteran peels off after his titanic shift and UAE take it up. The gap for the eight leaders is down to 1'30".

After Koen Bouwman blows off the back, along with Ben Healy - dropped from the breakaway earlier - Rohan Dennis is the Jumbo man setting the tempo ahead of his former colleagues at Ineos. So, Roglic doesn't have as commanding a position as he did have - although he has Sepp Kuss alongside him still.

Joao Almeida is still there with a couple of UAE team-mates - Jay Vine and Davide Formolo I think. Eddie Dunbar, Hugh Carthy, Lennard Kemna, Damiano Caruso, Andreas Leknessund are all there... as is Bruno Armirail. What a ride from the Frenchman. If he finishes within 1'08" of Thomas, he will keep his maglia rosa. A big ask.

Aurelien Paret-Peintre, Pronskiy, Haig and Konrad have joined the leading duo, with Ben Swift and Diego Ulissi fighting to bridge over behind. What a climb from the Briton, who could be a vital relay for his team-mate Thomas later on. The Welshman is still in the maglia rosa group at 2'35".

Valentin Paret-Peintre is the first to pop - which is expected given how much work he has done for his brother today. Carlos Verona and Filippo Zana ride clear of the break while Ben Healy and Derek Gee seem to be struggling and are dropped from the Haig group. The peloton is 3'00" down now with Jumbo-Visma riding tempo.

The breakaway have started the final climb, which is 22.7km at 6.4%. There's a few steep double-digit ramps early on before it levels out a little ahead of a consistently hard second half of the climb which eases only for the final few kilometres near the summit.

The Australian climber nets the three-second bonus in the sprint ahead of Valentin Paret-Peintre and Diego Ulissi. The focus will now turn to climbing, with the gap back to the peloton dipping below four minutes for the first time in a while.

The 13 leaders have managed to get down that last downhill without any troubles and they are onto the 10km flat section that precedes the final climb of Monte Bondone. Their lead is still 4'30" and so it's perfectly poised ahead of the final climb made famous by the late, great Luxembourg climber Charly Gaul.

The gap is 4'35" which means Aurelien Paret-Peintre is still in the virtual race lead by a slender five seconds. It's likely that both he and Bruno Armirail lose time today so it's anyone's guess who is in the maglia rosa tonight. Either Thomas, Roglic or Almeida, you'd think.

We're hearing that Ineos Grenadiers have lost their French climber Pavel Sivakov, who has climbed off his bike. That's a big blow for Geraint Thomas's push for pink but inevitable after his crash last week. You have to feel for the 25-year-old who has now DNF'ed three of his past five Grand Tours. He's a huge talent but is prone to very unlucky crashes. He was one of five Ineos riders in the top 11 last week prior to that crash that ended Teo Geoghegan Hart's race.

It's the Spaniard Carlos Verona who skips clear to lead the break over the summit of the Cat.2 Serrada - protecting the third place of his team-mate Einer Rubio in the KOM standings. Ben Healy settles for second place and another 8pts to consolidate his grip on the maglia azzurra.

Chapeau to the Frenchman Bruno Armirail, who is still in this 40-strong peloton alongside Groupama-FDJ team-mates Molard and Pinot. It's all Jumbo now with Bouwman, Oomen and Dennis tapping out tempo for their man Roglic. They have reduced the gap to 4'15" to this Paret-Peintre-led leading group of 13 riders, who have just dropped Scaroni after his cameo out ahead alongside team-mate Pronskiy. Big clap to that man Derek Gee, who is still holding on. What a debut he's having - can he get that elusive win today after three second places?

We still have 3km of this climb remaining and it's guaranteed that the Astana duo will be caught well before the top. Their efforts, though, have blown fresh impetus into this breakaway, which now stands a chance of going the distance - although you sense that once the hammer drops behind, their advantage will tumble.

It's Valentin working for his brother Aurelien on the front of the chase group, which has come within 45 seconds now of the two leaders. The way Jumbo Visma are riding behind is an indication that they see today as a good opportunity to propel Roglic to a stage win and into pink.

Ulissi, Lastra, Swift and Skujins are in fact with the first chase group, which has 12 riders, and is now just 1'20" behind the Astana duo. The peloton is five minutes back with Koen Bouwman driving the tempo on the front. The Dutchman is riding a very different Giro than he did last year, where he had the freedom to win stages and take the blue jersey. This year he's been shadowing leader Primoz Roglic and lending the Slovenian a bike whenever he needs it.

There's been a big shake out in this breakaway now with the Paret-Peintre brothers, Haig, Konrad, Healy, Gee, Verona and Zana coming to the fore in pursuit of Pronskiy and Scaroni. That means the likes of Benedetti, Lastra, Bais, Gabburo, Magli, Marcellusi, Tonelli, Puccio, Swift, Hepburn, Skujins and Ulissi are dropping back.