2019 Giro d'Italia Stage 9 Results & Recap
Stage 9 of the 2019 Giro d'Italia is in the books. The final results and standings are below, followed by our recap of how the race unfolded.
Race Recap
Conti keeps the pink jersey as Roglic wins the Battle of San Marino
Ever since the route of the 2019 Giro was announced, the stage 9 time trial to San Marino was slated to be the starting gun for the GC contenders – and the stage delivered. It was a time trial with three contests-within-the-contest: there was the fight for stage honours, the struggle to take the Maglia Rosa into the rest day and above all, the battle between the GC favourites. Although Valerio Conti (UAD) keeps the pink jersey, it was Primoz Roglic (TJV) who took the stage and dealt a devastating blow to his competitors.
Today’s 34 km long time trial started off in the Italian town of Riccione, taking a flat route towards the mini-state of San Marino, where a gruelling 11 kilometre climb awaited the riders. The climb comprised two steep sections, with a treacherous downhill section in between. Additionally, riders were faces with rapidly changing weather conditions – mild temperatures interchanging with torrential downpours. To calm any nervous hearts: luck has it that no rider crashed out of the Giro d’Italia today.
It was the earliest riders that were most lucky, in terms of weather – the first showers of rain had just dried up. Scott Davies (TDD) set in an early reference point, putting multiple minutes between himself and the next man as he crossed the line. It was another early starter however who sat on the hot seat for most of the day. European time trial champion Victor Campenaerts (LTS) had started the day tempering expectations, saying that the climb at the finish made it unlikely for him to finish in the day’s top ten, let alone win. When Campenaerts arrived at the line on a road bike, after a disastrous mechanical just 1600 metres from the finish, he considered his time in the hot seat would be short.
He did not take into account the changing weather, and a flood of rain saw time trial specialists, climbers, and riders with ostensibly the perfect mix of both qualities finish with considerably slower times than Campenaerts. It was Estonian champion Tanel Kangert (EF1) who first got to within a minute of the Belgian hot seat, and shortly after, Bauke Mollema (TFS) bettered that time with a handful of seconds. At that point, most of the main GC contenders were on the road. Simon Yates (MTS) and Vincenzo Nibali (TBM) were looking to limit their losses on Roglic, while hoping to gain a little time on each other. On the flat section, it looked like a close call, with Yates ten seconds ahead on the first time split and Nibali on the other. However, at the top of the climb, Yates had completely lost steam, as he finished over three minutes behind the stage winner. Nibali slotted nicely in between Kangert and Mollema. Roglic had started the final climb less than 50 seconds down on Campenaerts, but powered to the finish in record speed, eventually beating the Belgian with 11 seconds, gaining a minute and five seconds over Nibali.\n \nOther victims of the day included Miguel Angel Lopez (AST), Davide Formolo (BOH), Sam Oomen (SUN), the INEOS duo Sivakov and Geoghan Hart, and Mikel Landa (MOV), while the stage result was a pleasant surprise for Hugh Carthy (EF1), Mattia Cattaneo (AND) and Bob Jungels (DQS).
The stage was concluded with a who-is-who of the breakaway artists of stage six, who had ridden their way inadvertently to the top of the bill. Pello Bilbao secured himself a descent spot with an outlook at the GC in Verona, while Nans Peeters took over the white jersey for the time being. Maglia Rosa Valerio Conti was involved in mano á mano competition against JosĂ© JoaquĂn Rojas for the jersey, but as the latter struggled to gain time on the flat and then took a wrong lefthand turn on the climb, the deal was sealed and Conti can now look at several more days in the pink jersey.
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