Belgian Wout Van Aert battled to victory on stage nine of the Giro d'Italia on Sunday, holding off Mexican Isaac del Toro who moved into the overall lead after the pair went for broke and stole a march on the rest of the field.
Van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike), riding his first Giro, looked to have run out of steam coming into the final kilometre but recovered to overtake Del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), with Italy's Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) coming in third.
Pre-race favourite Primoz Roglic (Red Bull–Bora–Hansgrohe) was involved in a crash and also suffered a puncture to lose valuable time in the general classification, dropping to 10th overall, two minutes and 25 seconds behind Del Toro.
STAGE 9 RESULTS
1. Wout van Aert (Team Visma | Lease a Bike) - 180 80 10″ 4:15:08
2. Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates - XRG) - 130 50 6″ ,,
3. Giulio Ciccone (Lidl - Trek) - 95 35 4″ 0:58
4. Richard Carapaz (EF Education - EasyPost) - 80 25 ,,
5. Simon Yates (Team Visma | Lease a Bike) - 60 18 1:00
6. Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain - Victorious 45 15) ,,
7. Juan Ayuso(UAE Team Emirates - XRG) - 40 12 1:07
8. Thymen Arensman (INEOS Grenadiers) 35 10 1:10
9. Egan Bernal (INEOS Grenadiers) 30 8 ,,
10. Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates - XRG) - 25 6 ,,
11. Edward Planckaert Edward (Alpecin - Deceuninck) - 20 5 1:12
12. Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates - XRG) - 15 4 1:22
13. Kevin Geniets (Groupama - FDJ) - 10 3 1:24
14. Mathias Vacek (Mathias Lidl - Trek) - 5 2 2:03
15. Thomas Pidcock (Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team) - 2 1 2:22
16. Andrea Vendrame (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team) ,,
17. Derek Gee (Israel - Premier Tech) - ,,
18. Damiano Caruso (Bahrain - Victorious) - ,,
19. Primoz Roglic (Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe) - ,,
20. Martin Marcellusi (VF Group - Bardiani CSF - Faizanè) - 2:25
GENERAL CLASSIFICATION
1. Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates - XRG) - 20 16″ 33:36:45
2. Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates - XRG) - 10″ 1:13 3 6
3. Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain - Victorious) - 1:30 4 11
4. Richard Carapaz (EF Education - EasyPost) - 1:40 5 14
5. Giulio Ciccone (Lidl - Trek) - 4″ 1:41 6 10
6. Simon Yates (Team Visma | Lease a Bike) - 1:42 7 15
7. Egan Bernal (INEOS Grenadiers) - 4″ 1:57
8. Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates - XRG) - 1:59
9. Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates - XRG) - 2:01
10. Primoz Roglic (Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe) - 2″ 2:25
SELECTED RESULT
30. Louis Meintjes (Louis Intermarché - Wanty) - 8:46