Dennis wins Giro’s 16th stage

ROVERETO, Italy: Australia’s Rohan Dennis won the 16th stage of the Giro d’Italia, a 34.2km individual time-trial between Trento and Rovereto in northern Italy on Tuesday.

Britain’s Simon Yates retained the leader’s pink jersey with a 56-sec lead on defending champion Tom Dumoulin going into the crucial, final week of racing. Dennis, 27, finished 14sec ahead of Germany’s Tony Martin of Katusha-Alpecin with Dumoulin of Team Sunweb third 22sec off the pace. It was the first Giro stage win for the rider from Adelaide who finished second in the first time-trial in Jerusalem, and adds to his stage wins on the Tour de France and Vuelta a Espana.

Four-time Tour de France winner Chris Froome was fifth on the stage, 35sec behind the Australian as the Team Sky rider moves up to fourth from seventh overall at 3min 50sec. Overall leader Yates lost less time to second placed defending champion Dumoulin than many observers had predicted.