The final stage of the 2016 Giro d’Italia was set to be a celebration ride for the GC contenders and another one for the sprinters. However, the weather didn’t play into the organizers cards, who had to neutralize the final laps on the technical city circuit in Torino. For Team Dimension Data for Qhubeka the race ended in a bittersweet manner, as Johann van Zyl crashed out, while Kanstantsin Siutsou (pictured above) secured his 10th place in the overall classification.
163 kilometers from Cuneo to Torino were on the menu today, including a twisty circuit in the capital of the Piedmont region. The profile didn’t show any major difficulties and racing only got underway inside the final 60 kilometers. Maarten Tjallingii and Jos van Emden were the first to attack. The LottoNL-Jumbo managed to establish a gap of around one minute to the Maglia Rosa group, which by then was hampered by a series of crashes. Our African team was involved in these as well. Jay Thomson went down, but was able to continue. Unfortunately, Johann van Zyl had less luck. A broken elbow forced him to abandon with the finish line in sight.
The peloton was split into pieces and only a small group of riders managed to reel the escapees back in. Jaco Venter (pictured above) was able to stay with them to fly the South African flag on his National champions jersey in the finale. In a hectic sprint he crossed the line just outside the top10, securing another good result for the team at this years Giro d’Italia. The stage win went to Nikias Arndt (Giant-Alpecin), after Giacomo Nizzolo (Trek-Segafredo), who had finished first, was disqualified for irregular sprinting.
Siutsou crossed the line behind overall winner Vincenzo Nibali (Astana). After three weeks of hard racing our Belorussian star finished the Italian race in 10th place overall, adding a second top10 GC result to the palmarés of our African team.
The team also managed to finish 9th overall in the teams classification of the race.
Kanstantsin Siutsou – Rider
Douglas Ryder – Team Principal
Jens Zemke – Sports Director
