Cortina d'Ampezzo (Italy) (AFP)

"I'm back !"

Egan Bernal, the strongest in the only Dolomites pass used by the Giro, dominated the 16th stage on Monday in Cortina d'Ampezzo and consolidated his position with less than a week to go.

"It's a great victory," said the Colombian, who won solo in the host resort of the 2026 Winter Olympics, thirty seconds ahead of Romain Bardet and the Italian Damiano Caruso.

Proof of his superiority and confidence, the winner of the Tour de France 2019 took the time to take off his raincoat before the line to arrive with the leader's pink jersey clearly visible.

"I wanted to show it. It's something special to win on a grand tour with the leader's jersey," said Bernal, who dressed in pink eight days after his success at Campo Felice (center) , the first of his career in a grand tour.

Bernal, sure of his strength, attacked twice in the passo Giau, the only pass in the Dolomites to cross in this stage reduced from 212 to 153 kilometers.

The Giro skipped the previous two, the Fedaia and the Pordoi, because of the weather conditions (cold, rain, sleet) which could make the descents very dangerous.

Sunday evening, an overwhelming majority of runners (97%) were in favor of this solution finally adopted Monday morning by those responsible for the event.

"I don't know what would have been the best for us, a long stage or the one that we had," commented after the arrival Bernal, being careful not to fuel the controversy still underlying in the Giro.

"We were ready for any hypothesis."

- An offensive invisible on TV -

A single pass, 9.9 kilometers long (at 9.3%), was therefore enough to wring the group of favorites.

The Belgian Remco Evenepoel was left behind even before the foot and finished very late.

Briton Simon Yates, second in the standings at the start of Sacile, let go before Bernal's offensive, which was only seen on TV screens for lack of live footage from Italian public television (RAI) because of the bad weather.

In a reminiscence of the last century, when the conditions of retransmission were random.

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4 kilometers from the pass, Bernal isolated himself to fall on the Spaniard Antonio Pedrero, the last survivor of the breakaway.

At the top of the Giau, the "roof" of this edition of the Giro at an altitude of 2233 meters, he fell over with 45 seconds ahead of Caruso and 1 min 13 sec on Bardet, who returned to the Italian in the descent.

"Since 2018, I have had ups and downs. It feels good to feel good," said the Frenchman, who climbed from 9th to 7th place in the standings, but especially less than a minute and a half from the podium.

Bernal thus approaches in a situation of strength the last five stages, which will follow the day of rest programmed Tuesday in Canazei (north).

"Two and a half minutes on the second (2 min 24 sec precisely on Caruso), it allows to manage if I have to know a difficult day", appreciated the pink jersey which also consolidated its position within the Ineos team, less than nine months after his retirement from the Tour de France he had raced as the sole leader.

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"I wanted to do something special, to show that I'm back and the team too," said Bernal, visibly happy.

"She believes in me and I have proven that she can count on me".

© 2021 AFP