descent of the Monte Rest, Roche formed a leading group with two other riders after speeding away from the race leader's group. Despite orders from his team management, Roche continued with the move. The Carrera Jeans-Vagabond pack chased after the Roche group to protect the advantage of Roche's teammate and race leader Visentini. Roche crossed the finish line in twelfth place, fifty-six seconds after the stage winner van der Velde, which allowed him to don again the pink jersey by five seconds over Tony Rominger. Roche's actions, taking the race lead away from Visentini and disobeying team commands, gained him the hatred of the Italian cycling fans. The sixteenth leg of the race included five categorized climbs before concluding in the municipality of Canazei. On the descent of the Pordoi Pass, van der Velde broke away and caught up to the leader on the road before winning his second consecutive stage. Meanwhile, behind van der Velde, Visentini tried several times to attack Roche on the slopes of the Passo Fedaia; however, Roche marked all of his moves and the two raced to the finish in the same group. Stage 17, the race's final day in the Dolomites, was marred by poor weather. A breakaway group of three was given a significant gap as the main general classification contenders rode behind in a collective group. Atala Ofmega's Italian rider Marco Vitali out-sprinted his two fellow breakaway members to win his first Grand Tour stage win. As the eighteenth stage began, the peloton felt they deserved a rest day after three difficult stages in the Dolomites and collectively rode at a non-aggressive pace for over three-quarters of the stage. Riders began to attack and form breakaway groups with about to go; however, the sprinters' teams reeled in all attacks and prepared for a sprint finish that was eventually won by Giuseppe Calcaterra, making it the second consecutive stage win for Atala-Ofmega. During the nineteenth stage, Jean-François Bernard launched an attack after the leading group finished the climb of the San Marco Pass. Three riders joined Bernard before the start of the final climb in Madesimo, but Bernard dropped them early on in the climb and rode the final alone to win the stage. Millar and Lejarreta managed to gain over thirty seconds on Roche after they attacked on the final climb. Despite a crash within the final kilometer of stage twenty, the