As it happened: Sprinters take the day on stage 9 after thrilling finale into Naples

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The stage exploded into life in the final 40km with several attacks just for it all to come down to a bunch sprint

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Buongiorno and welcome to Cyclingnews' live coverage of stage 9 of the 2024 Giro d'Italia!

Stage nine of the Giro d'Italia 2024 is here! The final stage of the first week before the riders have a well earned rest tomorrow. But first, they have to tackle 214km from Avezzano to the city of Napoli, otherwise known as Naples in the English speaking world. 

All the riders have signed on and are ready to go to the neutral start. Will the man in ciclamino take another stage win? Or can someone else take the win? Will the breakaway make it?

The jerseys today:

The riders have started the neutral start. 

By Italian standards, the weather is quite cool by Italian standards. A very pleasant 21 degrees centigrade. That is 69.8 degrees fahrenheit, by the way. But it is glorious sunshine and perfect racing conditions. 3km to the official start. 

Ther jerseys and combative prize riders looking like they're about to drop a Eurovision banger... But, who will crack 'The Code' and take today's stage?

Puncture

211km to go

Attack

This may well be the breakaway of the day as the peloton do not seem interested but as I say that some more moves come with EF Education-EasyPost and Arkea-B&B Hotels launching some moves. 

UAE Team Emirates, Soudal-QuickStep, Alpecin-Deceuninck and Ineos Grenadiers have blocked the peloton and don't seem to want to allow any more riders. 

Caught

Puncture

Alpecin-Deceuninck have taken over the pace setting for today's stage. 

200km to go

The Polti-Kometa duo of Maestri and Pietrobon have +1'15" on the peloton now as the pace starts to settle in the peloton. 

Maestri and Pietrobon are two super breakaway specialists. However, this break in particular is currently doomed. It is still a good day for the sponsors to get on the TV. Complete contrast to what was expected for today. But, maybe yesterday was just too hard. 

190km to go

One rider did not start today. The national champion of Kazakhstan, Alexey Lutsenko of Astana Qazaqstan. He was distanced yesterday but he only finished +2'21" down in 19th place. But he has decided to stop. He wasn't initially meant to ride this race and was a last minute addition after his win at the Giro d'Abruzzo last month. 

The two heroes in the break today... 

180km to go

We're just inside 100km until the first competition sprint of the day. It is the standard intermediate sprint that comes first in the town of Mondragone. 

170km to go

Alpecin-Deceuninck using Jimmy Janssens as the main man to do the pacing for the moment. 

160km to go

Alpecin-Deceuninck still lead the peloton but Soudal-Quickstep, Arkea-Samsic, VF Group-Bardiani CSF-Faizane, Lidl-Trek, Bahrain Victorious and DSM-Firmenich-PostNL have all moved a rider onto their wheel.

The rest of the peloton let Janssens (ADC) role off the front as they try to slow the pace. He looked around, sat up and chatted on the radio to get advice from the team car. The gap up to the break has shot up to +3'39".

150km to go

Attack

It is wave after wave of attack in the peloton now. The riders on the move, though, are all smiling and laughing. A really bizarre moment in the day. Janssens (ADC) back on the front. 

Alpecin-Deceuninck are now sending riders on these moves with Hermans (ADC) following Sutterlin (TBV). 

Lidl-Trek now getting involved as well, along with Visma-Lease a Bike and Soudal-QuickStep as no-one wants to be left behind and be forced to chase. But, still nothing gets a gap. 

140km to go

The peloton now spreads across the road and the pace has gone out of the bunch completely. And the gap starts to climb for Maestri and Pietrobon of Polti-Kometa up the road. 

And the peloton has now gone back to what it was before the random attacks, like nothing happened. Very strange. 

130km to go

There may be a light at the end of the tunnel for the breakaway in this photo. However, in a race sense, it doesn't seem like there's much hope. 

120km to go

The race is really settled back into the slow build after that sudden period of attacks about 30km ago. 

110km to go

Fun fact from Soudal-QuickStep...

100km to go

Around 15km to the first intermediate sprint.

The official Giro twitter page sums today up nicely... 

3km to the first intermediate sprint of the day.

Intermediate sprint

The race is now just over 20km to the InterGiro sprint. Same amount of points available, but also 3, 2 and 1 bonus seconds. 

The entirety of Alpecin-Deceuninck are on the front of the peloton now. It is still Janssens leading but he has now been joined by the rest of his teammates. 

70km to go

60km to go

Crash!

Geraint Thomas (IGD) is straight back riding after checking his bike and now his four teammates are with him to bring him back. 

Attack

The InterGiro sprint has just happened, we're awaiting the full results. 

Geraint Thomas (IGD) is back in the peloton again. 

InterGiro sprint

50km to go

Bahrain Victorious suddenly ramp the pace up massively with Arkea-B&B Hotels and UAE Team Emirates flanking them. Time gap to the break drops under a minute for the first time. 

Max Schachmann (BOH) makes it back to the peloton after his crash. 

Ineos Grenadiers, UAE Team Emirates, Groupama-FDJ, Arkea-B&B Hotels and Bahrain Victorious lead the peloton

Some good work by Ineos Grenadiers got Thomas back into the peloton and now he is right up to the front with Ganna leading their train. 

Dropped

40km to go

UAE Team Emirates, Movistar, Groupama-FDJ and Ineos Grenadiers lead onto the Monte di Procida back in the peloton. 

The pace isn't furious in the peloton and the teams have blocked the road with their trains. This will absolutely favour the sprinters. 

Dropped

KoM

Dropped

Pithie (GFC) has had a mechanical! He has suddenly appeared in the Merlier (SOQ) group at over a minute down on the peloton. 

Bonus sprint/30km to go

Paleni (GFC) is working hard for Pithie (GFC) with Walscheid (JAY) on the back. They are back in the cars but they're a minute back. 

Attack

Caught

Counter attack

It is definitely Nicola Conci in there for Alpecin-Deceuninck.

Counter attack

It is Lidl-Trek who now lead the peloton with Jonathan Milan right up there looking really good. 

Just +16" between the newly formed break and the peloton. 

Costiou (ARK) with a brilliant ride and he bridges across to the leaders. Seven riders now clear with +14" gap to the Lidl-Trek peloton. Piccolo (EFE) has been caught. 

20km to go

Attack

Caught

Now Conci is caught, Alpecin-Deceuninck come back to the front alongside Lidl-Trek as Alaphilippe (SOQ) and Costiou (ARK) have +26" on the bunch. 

Caught

Interestingly, Bahrain Victorious have also moved up. This is for Phil Bauhaus. 

The road surface is absolutely horrendous and the crowd is in the road. The riders not happy with some of the crowd that are way too close. 

10km to go

Onto the final 3.5km climb of the day. 

Attack

Caught

Attack

Alaphilippe (SOQ) caught and immediately dropped. 

Jhonatan Narváez (IGD) is being chased by Alexander Kamp (TUD) but the peloton is not far behind and the former Danish champion is caught bu Aurelien Paret-Peintre (DAT) who is working for Andrea Vendrame (DAT). 

5km to go

Crash

4km to go. Jhonatan Narváez (IGD) has +7" on the Jayco-AlUla led peloton. 

3km to go. Consonni (LTK) now working hard but Jhonatan Narváez (IGD) still has +7" gap on these tight and twisty roads in Napoli. 

2km to go for the Ecuadorian national road race champion. Jhonatan Narváez (IGD) is absolutely flying. The gap is now +9"!

UAE Team Emirates moving up with Pogačar (UAD) looking after Molano (UAD)!

Flamme Rouge!

500 metres to go for Jhonatan Narváez (IGD) with Lidl-Trek frantically chasing behind. 

Olav Kooij (TVL) wins stage 9 of the Giro d'Italia 2024! That was a breathless finale. Goodness me. 

Olav Kooij (TVL) wins his first Grand Tour stage by half a wheel over Jonathan Milan (LTK). 

Stage 9 top 10

General Classification at the end of the first week

Have a read of our full race report after stage 9 and the end of the first week in the Giro d'Italia. Complete with quotes from stage winner, Olav Kooij (TVL). Click the link below...

Jerseys going into the first rest day of the race:

That brings our live updates of stage 9 of the Giro d'Italia to a close, not to mention the end of the first week of racing. Rest day updates to come tomorrow so make sure you still check out the website for the best cycling news coverage. But for now, have a lovely rest of your weekend. Goodbye. 

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