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

Green Project-Bardiani look to use their four-man advantage by infiltrating the battle for blue - with an early attack near the summit to lead out Davide Gabburo. But Ben Healy has too much in the tank and it's the Irishman who goes over the top of the Passo di Santa Barbara to take the 40pts which puts him in the blue jersey for now. In the live standings, Healy now has 148pts - which is 4pts clear of the current maglia azzurra Davide Bais of Eolo-Kometa. Bais's brother and team-mate Mattia is in the break today but he was unable to defend his siblings' lead there.

The Irishman has edged towards the front of this breakaway - no doubt to snap up the KOM points that will put him into the virtual blue jersey after the first of five climbs. The gap is down to 2'55" now as Jumbo's Eduoardo Affini continues to do some damage on the front of the pursuing pack.

In terms of GC, the best places is Aurelien Paret-Peintre (+4:30), Jack Haig (+7:48) and Patrick Konrad (+9:08). Of those three riders, you'd pick out Aussie climber Haig or Austria's Konrad as good bets for the stage win - although Carlos Verona, Ben Healy, Diego Ulissi and Derek Gee are also quite fanciable. That said, with the gap coming down towards the three-minute mark, it's unlikely that any of these 26 riders will go the distance - unless there's a shake-up soon. You just sense that today's going to be won by one of the GC favourites or someone attacking from the group of favourites...

It's the bulky Italian in his red sunglasses who taps out tempo on the front ahead of the Groupama-FDJ train of pink jersey Bruno Armirail. I say train - but the Frenchman is down to four team-mates including Thibaut Pinot. Behind the rest of Jumbo-Visma are tucked in ahead of Geraint Thomas and three Ineos Grenadiers riders. The Welshman has an additional two men up the road in the move in Puccio and Swift. The gap is 3'35".

Early movement in this breakaway as Nicolas Dalla Valle opens up an early gap. Once pegged back, it's Vadim Pronskiy who tests his legs with an acceleration. All a bit pointless and he's brought back pretty quickly. If there are 26 riders in this move now then we can expect a huge shake out on this climb because many of the escapees are not what you could call competant climbers - that man Jonathan Milan, for instance, the maglia ciclamino. Milan will be gutted that the first intermediate sprint comes after the first two climbs, and not before, after that long flat section.

The breakaway is onto the first of five climbs of the day, the Cat.1 Passo Santa Barbara, which is 12.8km long at an average gradient of 8.3%. Ben Healy has a puncture and needs a wheel change, which isn't the ideal start for the EF Education-EasyPost rider. He's the best placed rider in this break in the maglia azzurra KOM standings after his exploits on Sunday. The Irishman is in fourth place on 108pts with Italy's Davide Bais currently leading on 144pts. With 135pts up for grabs today we could well see Healy in blue today.

Finally we have a time check - and it's a whopping 3'50" for the leaders, which is perhaps larger than most of us expected. Indeed, it puts Aurelien Paret-Peintre just 40 seconds away from the virtual maglia rosa.

Meanwhile, off the back of the peloton is Joao Almeida after a puncture. The UAE rider doesn't seem too distressed and he's taking his time to return to the fold in what is the stage with the most amount of climbing in the entire Giro.

The chase group catches the first group so we now have a breakaway of 26 riders that has come together in the town of Nago. Almost instantly the road goes uphill - not on the first categorised climb, but a short and sharp little taster which precedes the Cat.1 Passo di Santa Barbara.

We should add that the Eolo-Kometa rider here is not Davide Bais, the blue jersey, but his brother, Mattia.

It's Eduardo Affini, the powerhouse Italian TT specialist, which makes sense because he won't be around once the road heads uphill. Jumbo have been forced to lead the chase because they don't have any riders in the breaks up the road whereas their rivals at Ineos and Bahrain and Bora do. The likes of Paret-Peintre, Konrad and Haig aren't genuine GC threats - but they can still cause some issues and have their say in the fight for pink. We're still waiting for a time check.

Some riders are taking a nature break and the pink jersey is on the back and in discussion with a Jumbo-Visma rider. Armirail seems to be telling his colleague that he and Groupama-FDJ have no desire to lead the chase - and this uncertainty will play into the hands of the riders up the road. We still don't have a time gap back to the peloton but the second group is 1'10" down on the first.

Austria's Patrick Konrad, who is nine minutes down on GC, is in a chase group that also includes the blue jersey of Davide Bais. The chasers are:

Vadim Pronskiy (Astana-Qazaqstan)
Cesare Benedetti and Patrick Konrad (Bora-Hansgrohe)
Thomas Champion (Cofidis)
Davide Bais (Eolo-Kometa)
Davide Gabburo and Filippo Magli (Green Project-Bardiani)
Nicolas Dalla Valle and Veljko Stojnic (Team Corretec-Selle Italia)

With all the communication problems stemming from those tunnels it seems that some biggish names have managed to get into the day's break - including Aurelien Paret-Peintre, who is just 4:30 down on GC, and Jack Haig, who is seven minutes down but a very strong climber. The 17 escapees are:

Aurelien and Valentin Paret-Peintre (Ag2R Citroen)
Christian Scaroni (Astana-Qazaqstan)
Jack Haig and Jonathan Milan (Bahrain Victorious)
Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost)
Martin Marcellusi and Alessando Tonelli (Green Project-Bardiani)
Salvatore Puccio and Ben Swift (Ineos Grenadiers)
Derek Gee (Israel-PremierTech)
Carlos Verona (Movistar)
Michael Hepburn and Filippo Zana (Jayco-AlUla)
Toms Skujins (Trek-Segafredo)
Diego Ulissi (Trek-Segafredo)

The race is motoring along at an average speed of 51.7kmph which goes to show how competitive it has been since the gun. We can expect this tempo to continue until the foot of the first climb, which comes in about 25km.

So frequent are the tunnels cutting through the cliffs on the stunning shore of Lake Garda that we're not getting any images from the road - just some beautiful aerial shots that make us ache for a holiday in Italy (something you wouldn't have said much last week with all that rain). But that initial acceleration by Israel-PremierTech's Gee resulted in a move of 17 riders opening up a gap. Also present is Jonathan Milan of Bahrain-Victorious, the maglia ciclamino, and two Ineos Grenadiers riders - perhaps Swift and Puccio.

Shortly after the second part of the peloton bridged back over after a frantic chase, the leaders are reeled in after that brief cameo from Cav, Formolo, Tonelli, Serry and Konrad. But there's no let up along this beautiful lake-side road as Derek Gee - the Canadian debutant who has finished second three times in this race - throws down the hammer and sparks a response on the front of the pack.

Primoz Roglic is present and correct in the main peloton but many of his Jumbo team-mates have been caught out by the split, which occurred after Roglic's mountain lieutenant Sepp Kuss hit the deck on a roundabout.

Well, well, well... Mark Cavendish getting into a breakaway on a mountain stage. The British veteran announced his retirement on the rest day and so perhaps he feels like he's got nothing to lose. He's in a stellar quintet that also includes Davide Formolo (UAE Team Emirates), Pieter Serry (Soudal Quick-Step), Patrick Konrad (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Alessandro Tonelli (Green Project-Bardiani).

If you missed it on the rest day, here's that news on Cavendish's impending retirement...