2016 season review: Part three

Look back on the final part of the campaign as Chris Froome tackled the Vuelta and Gianni Moscon won the Arctic Race.

As soon as Chris Froome stepped off the podium in Paris having won his third Tour de France, his focus immediately switched to two equally tough goals: the Olympics in Rio and the Vuelta a Espana.

Froome flew out to Rio with his sights set primarily on success in the time trial, but he wasn't ruling out an assault on the earlier road race.

But it was Team Sky team-mate Sergio Henao, racing in the colours of his native Colombia, who came closest to claiming a medal, only to watch his chances slip away as he crashed on one of the race's treacherous final descents.

Out front in a group of three it looked as though Henao was guaranteed a medal until a brutal crash just 10km from home after an enthralling battle around Rio.

With the sun setting in the Brazilian city focus then switched to Geraint Thomas, equally well placed in the closing stages, but he suffered an all but identical crash to Henao in heartbreaking fashion.

Thomas was able to remount and lead Team GB home, finishing 11th, with Froome 12th. Sadly Henao broke his collarbone, cutting his season short, as Belgian Greg van Avermaet claimed the Gold medal.

Froome was the last rider to go in the time trial four days later, setting off in pursuit of pre-race favourite Tom Dumoulin and TT specialist Fabian Cancellara, in what was to be the final race of the Swiss legend's career. 'Spartacus' produced a blistering ride to take the Gold medal ahead of Dumoulin, while Froome battled hard to snatch Bronze from Rohan Dennis - a result he declared himself happy with afterwards.

He said: "The year I've had, with the third Tour won and then to come here and medal again in the Olympics, it is just incredible."

Back on European soil Danny van Poppel was hitting his stride. Having picked up his maiden Team Sky win at the Tour de Yorkshire towards the end of April he took the Vuelta a Burgos by storm - although, midway through the opening stage, it looked like the race could take a sour turn for the Dutchman.

A crash in the peloton saw Van Poppel go down, but he was able to remount and dominate the opening sprint in his torn jersey and two days later he was at it again, winning the third stage in equally dominant fashion.

Next up for the 23 year old was the Arctic Race. After a strong third place on the opening day the Dutchman powered to a nail-biting win on day two, beating a star-studded field to the line in Norway. It was his third win in two weeks.

The team had plenty of options for the overall classification when the Arctic battle hit the hills. Ben Swift, Lars Petter Nordhaug and Sebastian Henao were all there at the sharp end of the queen stage, but it was Gianni Moscon who stepped up to blow the opposition away with a scintillating attack inside the final two kilometres to take the win - and the race lead.

The young Italian defended the leader's jersey stoutly on the final day to claim the first major GC win of his career, capping a fantastic breakthrough year for the neo pro.

Back from Rio, Froome was ready for the Vuelta a Espana - the third and final Grand Tour of the season. He was attempting to win both the Tour and Vuelta in the same season, a feat not achieved since Bernard Hinault completed the double in 1978.

Backed up by Ian Boswell, Michal Golas, Peter Kennaugh, Christian Knees, Leopold Konig, Michal Kwiatkowski, David Lopez and Salvatore Puccio, the race got off to the perfect start. The team won the opening team time trial by less than a second from Movistar and Kennaugh led the group over the line, putting him in the leader's red jersey.

The following day Kwiatkowski finished fourth to inherit the jersey from his team-mate, before Movistar's Ruben Fernandez took the lead on day three. Froome remained firmly in contention over the opening weeks, before igniting the afterburners on stage 11.

He sat third ahead of the summit finish atop the Pena Cabarga and he produced one of the rides of his year to stick with race leader Nairo Quintana (Movistar), before exploding past the Colombian to take his second victory atop the famous climb, in similar fashion to his 2011 win. That moved Froome up to second, just under a minute back on Quintana, with an inviting time trial to come.

Froome would indeed win the stage 19 time trial in breathtaking fashion, winning from Jonathan Castroviejo (Movistar) by 44 seconds and beating Quintana by over two minutes - but it wasn't enough. A tactical team error on stage 15 saw Froome lose two minutes, after the peloton split into several pieces early on the stage and Quintana made the front group, while Froome was caught behind. The gap would never close, and the Colombian was able to extend his race lead out to over three minutes.

The battle raged on until Madrid but Froome had to admit defeat as the race arrived in the Spanish capital, with Quintana taking the title by a little over a minute.

Back on home soil the team was impressing at the Tour of Britain. Ian Stannard and Wout Poels won in dominant fashion on stages three and six respectively, while Nicolas Roche finished sixth overall, capping a fine week for the team.

The win was Stannard's first of an impressive season and it was a typically powerful performance from the Englishman. Having made his way into the day's break he then pushed clear with 40km remaining, winning by several minutes on his training roads in Cheshire, while Poels won the race's queen stage, just as he had in 2015.

While the racing raged on in Britain Gianni Moscon was cementing his reputation as one of the most exciting young riders around over in Canada, lighting up both the GP de Quebec and GP de Montreal. He launched an audacious late attack in Quebec and nearly pulled off a famous victory, before finishing sixth in Montreal.

Elia Viviani claimed two podium finishes at the Abu Dhabi Tour to cap off a fine year for the Italian, who won track Gold at the Olympics in the omnium, while the season finished with the Japan Cup, where Alex Peters powered to a creditable sixth place finish.