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

The Norwegian Andreas Leknessund - who enjoyed a stint in pink in the opening week and is currently fifth in the standings - has also been caught out by this split in the peloton. He has some Team DSM team-mates to help drive the pace alongside Bora and Groupama-FDJ - that's because Armirail, the pink jersey, is here, as is Lennard Kamna and Hugh Carthy. So some big names.

The carrots are cooked for Scaroni, Gabburo and Sbaragli, who sit up and let themselves get reabsorbed. But more importantly, there's a big split in the peloton following that earlier crash and caught out is the pink jersey of Bruno Armirail - as if his day wasn't going to be hard enough as it is. The gap is around 30 seconds.

There's been a spill on a roundabout as three riders go down after a touch of wheels. It's Sepp Kuss (Jumbo-Visma) and Laurens De Plus (Ineos Grenadiers) - two riders who will be playing a big role today for their leaders Roglic and Thomas. The third rider to go down is the conqueror of the Zoncolan from two years ago - Lorenzo Fortunato (Eolo-Kometa).

After all the initial skirmishes we have seen Kristian Sbaragli (Alpecin-Deceuninck) zip clear, soon to be joined by his fellow Italian Davide Gabburo (Green Project-Bardiani). They're soon joined by an Astana rider, Christian Scaroni. This all-Italian trio has 15 seconds over the pack, which is motoring along towards the shores of Lake Garda.

The peloton comes to a standstill for a photo opportunity at Kilometre Zero. That means we will have a standing start today for the riders. And they're off! The flag goes down and we have a few digs from the outset - including one from Dutch veteran Bauke Mollema.

After a flat opening 60km the riders will tackle five categorised climbs today in the Alps with two Cat.1 climbs book-ending a 203km schlep that also includes two Cat.2 ascents and a Cat.3 lump. In total we have 5,300m of climbing ahead which means this will be a ding dong battle for both pink and blue.

It looks like Joao Almeida has trimmed his woeful moustache. The Portuguese is also in a skinsuit today so he means business. The peloton is currently preparing itself for the official start having left behind Sabbio Chiese. Many have stopped to pee on the side of the road, while there's some mechanical issues as well for one or two. The sun is out and the sky is blue, which makes a welcome to a Giro that has been hampered by terrible weather including the worst flooding in Italy in 100 years. A temperature of 24 degrees is perfect for the riders.

Italy's Davide Ballerini is feeling sick and so Soudal Quick-Step have lost their sixth rider now and only have Ilan Van Wilder and Pieter Serry remaining. Australian veteran Simon Clarke (Israel-PremierTech) has also withdrawn along with Eritrean Amanuel Ghebreigzabhier of Trek-Segafredo. Of the above, Clarke came closest to winning a stage in the opening week at Napoli when he came within 250m of contesting the spoils with fellow veteran Alessandro De Marchi (see below).

The Frenchman was part of that large breakaway in Stage 14 which took over 20 minutes on the peloton to see Armirail take over the race lead from Geraint Thomas. Groupama-FDJ defended the pink jersey on Sunday despite being tailed off near the end in Bergamo but he surely doesn't have the climbing legs to keep it for a third day. Here's the top five at the moment:

1. Bruno Armirail
2. Geraint Thomas +1:08
3. Primoz Roglic +1:10
4. Joao Almeida +1:30
5. Andreas Leknessund +1:50

Ciao ragazzi! And welcome to live coverage of Stage 16 of the Giro d'Italia as a brutal week gets under way with the first of three summit finishes - and hopefully, finally, some action in the fight for pink. Take Bruno Armirail out of the question and the top three of this Giro - Geraint Thomas, Primoz Roglic and Joao Almeida - are separated by just 22 seconds going into this decisive final week.

"It's all been building up to this week really and it's a tough mountain stage with a tough finish so I'm sure there'll will be some gaps," says Thomas, who adds: "The race will explode this week." For his part, Roglic says, "I'm sure it won't be a bunch sprint on Monte Bondone."