2020 Giro d’Italia – Stage 9 – Highlights, Report, Results
Highlights
Report
Wet, rainy conditions favor the bold in bike racing. It seems to also favor our ducks in Italy as Ruben Guerreiro took a second mountain top stage win for EF Pro Cycling at the 2020 Giro d’Italia on a day marked by torrential rain and lot’s of climbing.
The 208km course from San Salvo to Roccaraso was labeled as the queen stage across the Apennines with over 4,000m of altitude gain on 4 categorized climbs. With plenty of mountain classification points up for grabs and a stage profile that looked suited for a breakaway win, it took awhile for the break to get established. But finally, eight riders would ride off the front of the peloton – including our own Ruben Guerreiro – right before the first categorized climb of the day.
The breakaway would build up a handy advantage over the peloton, stretching the time gap out to right around 6 minutes, where it would stay for most of the day. Ruben, who also had a shot of gaining control of the mountains classification at the end of the day, fought for every mountain classification point possible, sprinting over the top of nearly every single categorized climb. But in order to get the jersey, he needed to cross the line finish first as well.
With 35km remaining, the attacks started to fly out of the breakaway. Mikkel Bjerg (UAE) put in the first dig, shedding a few riders in the process. The group would work together for another 30km before Castroviejo (INS) launched a decisive attack that was only matched by Guerreiro. The two of them would ride together until the final kilometer where, with 200m to go, Ruben launched his sprint and distanced the Ineos veteran, giving himself enough time to savor his victory across the line.
This not only marks Ruben’s first World Tour stage win but it is also Portugal’s first Giro d’Italia stage win in 31 years. On Tuesday, Ruben will get to wear the blue mountains classification jersey as well. But first, the team will be able to savor their two stage victories on a well deserved rest day tomorrow.
Results
Stage
| 1 | Ruben Guerreiro (Por) EF Pro Cycling | 5:41:20 |
| 2 | Jonathan Castroviejo Nicolas (Spa) Ineos Grenadiers | 0:00:08 |
| 3 | Mikkel Bjerg (Den) UAE Team Emirates | 0:00:58 |
| 4 | Kilian Frankiny (Swi) Groupama-FDJ | 0:01:16 |
| 5 | Lawrence Warbasse (USA) AG2R la Mondiale | |
| 6 | Tao Geoghegan Hart (GBr) Ineos Grenadiers | 0:01:19 |
| 7 | Lucas Hamilton (Aus) Mitchelton-Scott | 0:01:32 |
| 8 | Wilco Kelderman (Ned) Team Sunweb | 0:01:38 |
| 9 | Jakob Fuglsang (Den) Astana Pro Team | |
| 10 | Jai Hindley (Aus) Team Sunweb |
General Classification
| 1 | Joao Almeida (Por) Deceuninck-Quickstep | 35:35:50 |
| 2 | Wilco Kelderman (Ned) Team Sunweb | 0:00:30 |
| 3 | Pello Bilbao (Spa) Bahrain McLaren | 0:00:39 |
| 4 | Domenico Pozzovivo (Ita) NTT Pro Cycling | 0:00:53 |
| 5 | Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Trek-Segafredo | 0:00:57 |
| 6 | Jakob Fuglsang (Den) Astana Pro Team | 0:01:01 |
| 7 | Harm Vanhoucke (Bel) Lotto Soudal | 0:01:02 |
| 8 | Patrick Konrad (Aut) Bora-Hansgrohe | 0:01:11 |
| 9 | Jai Hindley (Aus) Team Sunweb | 0:01:15 |
| 10 | Rafal Majka (Pol) Bora-Hansgrohe | 0:01:17 |
Points
| 1 | Arnaud Demare (Fra) Groupama-FDJ | 167 |
| 2 | Peter Sagan (Svk) Bora-Hansgrohe | 110 |
| 3 | Michael Matthews (Aus) Team Sunweb | 87 |
| 4 | Filippo Ganna (Ita) Ineos Grenadiers | 45 |
| 5 | Davide Ballerini (Ita) Deceuninck-Quickstep | 40 |
Mountains
| 1 | Ruben Guerreiro (Por) EF Pro Cycling | 84 |
| 2 | Giovanni Visconti (Ita) Vini Zabu’ KTM | 76 |
| 3 | Jonathan Castroviejo Nicolas (Spa) Ineos Grenadiers | 45 |
| 4 | Filippo Ganna (Ita) Ineos Grenadiers | 41 |
| 5 | Jonathan Caicedo (Ecu) EF Pro Cycling | 40 |
Young Riders
| 1 | Joao Almeida (Por) Deceuninck-Quickstep | 35:35:50 |
| 2 | Harm Vanhoucke (Bel) Lotto Soudal | 0:01:02 |
| 3 | Jai Hindley (Aus) Team Sunweb | 0:01:15 |
| 4 | Lucas Hamilton (Aus) Mitchelton-Scott | 0:02:23 |
| 5 | Tao Geoghegan Hart (GBr) Ineos Grenadiers | 0:02:41 |