Mikel Landa won a second successive mountain stage of the Giro d'Italia with victory on stage 16 as Alberto Contador strengthened his grip on the race lead.
Landa (Astana) soloed to win the 174-kilometres route from Pinzolo to Aprica, with Steven Kruijswijk (LottoNL-Jumbo) second and Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo) third, both 38 seconds behind.
Yury Trofimov (Katusha) was fourth, two minutes three seconds adrift of Landa, as Contador enhanced his position in the leader's pink jersey.
Fabio Aru began the day in second, 2mins 35secs behind Contador after Monday's rest day, but finished the stage 2:51 behind his Astana team-mate Landa to slip to 4:52 adrift overall.
Landa, who attacked only after Aru struggled on the Mortirolo ascent, moved into second place, 4:02 behind Contador, whose advantage is commanding ahead of Sunday's finish in Milan.
"To Mikel Landa, I can only say: chapeau. These are the stages that people remember"
Contador clung on despite his rivals attacking when he had a puncture, contrary to one of cycling's unwritten rules.
"It was a very hard day, an incredible stage," Contador said.
"Cycling isn't mathematics: I had a puncture on the descent. Ivan Basso gave me a wheel, but ahead they were going at full speed and it was impossible to close the gap immediately.
"It was hard for me, but I'm very happy with the time gaps now.
"To Mikel Landa, I can only say: chapeau. These are the stages that people remember."
Landa said: "It was a really beautiful day for me, perhaps even better than Sunday (and his win on stage 15).
"We saw that Alberto had a problem, and Katusha went full gas, so we worked with them.
"On the Mortirolo, Fabio Aru wasn't feeling good and he told me to go with Contador and Kruijswijk.
"Today I really proved that I can be one for the strongest riders on the climbs and we still have several uphill finishes left.
"As a team, we will have to stick together and stay attentive, because what happened to Contador today could happen to one of us."
