Giro Stage 9 Report / Discussion: Evenepoel reclaims the pink jersey but the GC remains wide open
Grand Tour time trial days usually pick from one of two stories: they’re either clinical executions of formulae where technology and power reign, or shock and awe thrillers that turn the race upside down. Stage 9 somehow managed to land somewhere in between, a race that was dull as the dish water that rained from the sky until the last few minutes when it looked like Remco Evenepoel might in fact not take his inevitable second win of the Giro.
It wasn’t a perfect day for the young Belgian, but win he did, by a single second over Geraint Thomas who bounces up to second in the overall standings on a day that did much less damage to the GC than was anticipated.
One of the more surprising performances of the day came from Primož Roglič who looked like he was on his way to a disappointing result at the first time check, but he paced himself better than some of his rivals to finish safe in the top 10, limiting his losses to Evenepoel to just 17 seconds, which makes his overall deficit less than a minute.
Earlier in the afternoon, Michael Hepburn (Jayco AlUla) spent a decent stint in the hot seat – fidgeting with his arms wrapped across his chest to keep the damp at bay – until Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo) relieved the Australian of the dubious honour of keeping the seat warm for the big favourites to come. The second rider to smash the Dutchman’s time was Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ), but the ever-determined Swiss specialist will have to keep looking for that elusive first Grand Tour TT win.
Discussion – have your say in the comments:
– Evenepoel now has a 45-second lead after nine stages. He’ll have hoped for a lot more, right?
– Roglič’s performance was not as disappointing as at first it seemed, but should anything be read into the Olympic Champion’s TT?
– How excited are you to see the Ineos Grenadiers use their multi-leader strategy to their advantage? Might we even see another alliance between the Ineos pair and Roglič as seen on stage 8?
– What does Stefan Küng have to do to win a Grand Tour TT stage? *sad face*
Brief results:
- Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step)
- Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) @ 0:01
- Tao Geoghegan Hart (Ineos Grenadiers) @ 0:02
- Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ) @ 0:04
- Bruno Armirail (Groupama-FDJ) @ 0:08
- Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma) @ 0:17
General Classification after stage 9:
- Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step)
- Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) @ 0:45
- Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma) @ 0:47
- Tao Geoghegan Hart (Ineos Grenadiers) @ 0:50
- João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) @ 1:07
