The sixteenth leg's breakaway initially started with nineteen riders. Alexander Gontchenkov attacked out of the group and rode solo to the finish to win the stage, while time gaps between general classification contenders again did not change. Laurent Roux and Nicolaj Bo Larsen started the breakaway during the seventeenth stage and did not get caught by the "peloton", staying out in front for . The "peloton" was gearing up for a chase with around to go, but race leader Tonkov suffered an issue with his bike and chose to wait for the team car to get another bike. This incident caused the field to slow their pace and wait for the leader, which caused the group to cross the line over sixteen minutes behind the winners. The next stage was won by Cipollini by means of a sprint finish, his fourth stage of the race. The nineteenth stage was a lengthy time trial that stretched from Vicenza to Marostica. Evgeni Berzin won the stage by a single second over Spanish rider Olano. Olano's performance on the stage brought him into second place overall by one second, while Urgrumov only managed to gain six seconds on Tonkov – placing him fourteen seconds behind.