Giro d'Italia: Ruben Guerreiro wins stage 9 at Roccaraso

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Ruben Guerreiro (EF Pro Cycling) outsprinted Jonathan Castroviejo (Ineos Grenadiers) to win stage 9 of the Giro d’Italia on Sunday.

The pair broke clear from the rest of the day's eight-man breakaway on the final two climbs of the day, with Guerreiro getting the better of Castroviejo in the sprint at the line.

"Finally, what a great satisfaction after so many second places! The team and I really deserved this victory. It was very difficult to get into the breakaway this morning and it's extraordinary to win today," Guerreiro said.

Guerreiro's Portuguese compatriot João Almeida successfully defended the pink jersey, as the expected battle among the GC favourites never really materialised.

The peloton stayed together until the final kilometre when Wilco Kelderman (Sunweb) and Jakob Fuglsang (Astana) managed to gain a few seconds over the other GC candidates.

The time gaps were small, but perhaps revealing of which riders are in better form as we reach the end of the first week. Rafal Majka and Patrick Konrad (Bora-Hansgrohe) were three seconds behind Kelderman and Fuglsang; Pozzovivo six seconds; and Vincenzo Nibali, despite instructing his Trek-Segafredo teammates to set a fast pace over the day's final two climbs, conceded 14 seconds.

Pello Bilbao (Bahrain-McLaren) also lost 14 seconds, meaning he slips to third overall behind Kelderman, while Steven Kruijswijk (Jumbo-Visma) was further back still, losing 21 seconds.

Despite the very difficult parcours, however, the GC race was largely a stalemate, with none of the top candidates willing to make a major attack.

Instead, the breakaway was the main focus of the stage, with Guerreiro proving to be the strongest.

His was EF Pro Cycling's second stage win of this Giro following Jonathan Caicedo's triumph on stage 3, and their sport director Matti Breschel was delighted at the finish.

"It's amazing. I still can't believe what just happened. Ruben Guerreiro rode like a champion today. It was a strong group. He wanted to be in the breakaway, and he was there, and he rode the final perfect. An amazing day for us.

"He's an amazing character, an amazing person. He's a little bit like an artist on the bike, he wants to do a lot of things. But when he's calm he really is a fantastic bike rider. He was close to winning a stage at the Vuelta last year, and this year he's only been progressing. Even during the lockdown, he was very professional, very motivated to do good in this Giro. Finally, he had some success."

How it unfolded

On a cold, drizzly day, it took a little while for the break to get away, but eventually, a seven-man break was formed on the rolling run-in to the first classified climb of the day, the category one Passo Lanciano.

They were: Ruben Guerreiro (EF Pro Cycling), Jonathan Castroviejo (Ineos Grenadiers), Eduardo Sepulveda (Movistar) and Ben O'Connor (NTT Pro Cycling), plus Giovanni Visconti (Vini Zabu-Brado-KTM), Kilian Frankiny (Groupama-FDJ) and Larry Warbasse (AG2R La Mondiale), who managed to bridge over a little later.

On the climb, they were joined by an eighth rider, Mikkel Bjerg (UAE Team Emirates), who put in a huge effort to make up several minutes between himself and the other breakaway riders.

Visconti took the maximum points at the summit ahead of Guerreiro and Castroviejo, and then again on the following category two Passo San Leonardo, meaning he became the new virtual leader of the mountains classification.

With Castroviejo the best-placed man overall in the break on GC at 6:49, the peloton weren't overly concerned with the breakaway and allowed the gap to grow to over seven minutes.

Indeed, the GC riders kept their powder dry until the finishing climb to Roccaraso, on where one of the most important GC showdowns was expected to take place.

Trek-Segafredo were the first team to show intent, upping the pace in the peloton on the penultimate climb, Bosco di Sant'Antonio. That brought the gap down to around 3:30 with 22km to go, but it steadied again once the team allowed Deceuninck-QuickStep to take over, giving the breakaway a realistic shot at competing for the stage win.

Visconti, Sepúlveda and O'Connor were dropped on Bosco di Sant'Antonio, leaving just five in the leading group. At the foot of the final climb, with Team Sunweb having taken control at the front of the peloton, the gap remained at 3:30.

Castroviejo attacked 6.3km from the finish, with only Guerreiro able to follow. The pair managed to build a lead of over half a minute from the other three, ensuring that they would contest for the stage win.

Castroviejo attacked again as the gradient ramped up under the 1km to go banner, but was unable to drop his Portuguese companion. Guerreiro remained glued to Catroviejo's wheel for the rest of the climb, until launching his sprint with 200 metres to go to take the victory.

Back in the peloton, Lucas Hamilton (Mitchelton-Scott) and Tao Geoghegan Hart (Ineos Grenadiers) were the first to attack, hoping to gain some time and move up from 17th and 19th on GC, respectively.

They managed to stay up the road as the favourites continued to look at each other until Kelderman made his move in the final kilometre.

The gaps between them were limited to only a handful of seconds, meaning the situation at the top of the general classification remains largely the same.