Giro d'Italia stage 9: Weening wins ahead of Malacarne

Peter Weening (Orica-GreenEdge) won the mountaintop finish of the ninth stage of the Giro d'Italia, beating his breakaway companion Davide Malacarne (Europcar) in tactical two-man sprint. Domenico Pozzovivo (AG2R) took third place, 42 seconds down , having attacked the maglia rosa group to gain 26 seconds on race leader Cadel Evans (BMC).

Malacarne and Weening had broken out of an escape group on the final climb, and became the first to make it through to the finish in this year's Giro.

A 14-man group had formed about 50 kilometers into the day and had a lead of up to eight minutes. The BMC-led peloton seemed happy to let them go. Weening attacked with about 19km to go, with Malacarne chasing and catching him.

“The guys weren’t working perfect in the group,” Weening said of the breakaway. “It went slightly uphill and people were taking the wrong side of the round-about. I went on the other side and it was the right timing."

Weening was joined by the Europcar rider, and the pair worked together on the climb, but in the final 500m came to a near stand-still as they prepared for the sprint.

"I thought maybe we had to try to go before the climb. Malacarne came back and he was really strong. It was a steep part in the last climb, I made a fast speed but I couldn’t drop him. I waited until the last few hundred meters, I could gamble a bit in the last hundred meters."

Weening apologized to Malacarne after the stage, saying “Sorry, sorry.”

Cadel Evans easily held on to the leader's jersey, and although he lost time to Pozzovivo, he limited it to 26 seconds, and the Italian is still 1:20 back in fourth. Rigoberto Uran (Omega Pharma-Quickstep) remains in second at 57 seconds, while young rider Rafal Majka (Tinkoff-Saxo) is third at 1:10 heading into the race's second rest day.

“The guys controlled things until the move went,” Evans said. “There was a bigger selection which was in our favour because we could control the group. Guys were putting everything on the line and gambling a little more.

“We have to be satisfied with our work so far. I’m very happy with our team and they put me in the position I’m in now. I’m very proud of my guys and we will rest well tomorrow.”

A Sunny Day

There was sunshine again at the start in Lugo, with only one rider missing. Francesco Chicchi had to abandon after his spectacular tumble over a guardrail in yesterday's stage.

The first 100km or so of the stage were relatively flat, an open invitation to an escape group. But Team Sky held the pace high and no one was able to establish an attack until some 50km into the day. A large group formed with Julien Berard (AG2R La Mondiale), Enrico Barbin (Bardiani CSF), Marco Bandiera (Androni Giocatolli), Jackson Rodriguez (Androni Giocatolli), David Tanner (Belkin), Oscar Gatto (Cannondale), Leonardo Duque (Colombia), Matteo Bono (Lampre-Merida), Jonathan Monsalve (Neri Sottoli), Tosh Van der Sande (Lotto-Belisol), Salvatore Puccio (Team Sky), Eduard Vorganov (Katusha), Pieter Weening (Orica-GreenEdge) and Davide Malacarne (Europcar). Once the break formed, their lead soon skyrocketed up to 4:30 with 100km still to go.

That gap jumped to over eight minutes, and by the time the climbing started, it looked as if BMC was happy to let the group stay away until the end. None of the riders was a threat to Cadel Evans's leader's jersey, and after a strenuous first week of racing, perhaps the field was happy for a quiet day, or at least a quiet first part of the day.

BMC may have been happy with the situation, but not everyone was. The first climb of the day was the category 3 Sant'Antonio, and with the gap at about six and a half minutes, Garmin-Sharp moved into the lead to push up the pace. They put all seven riders up at the head of the field, but still the gap did not come down very quickly.

At the top of that climb, Monsalve sprinted to take the points, flying by Vorganov who had jumped from the group first.

Other teams were inspired by Garmin-Sharp, as first Movistar and then Lampre-Merida came up to the front, hoping to get their leaders Nairo Quintana and Diego Ulissi a stage win. BMC then moved back to take control of the situation.

With 45km to go, Malacarne jumped from the lead group, but was quickly brought back. Bandiera and Vorganov were the next to go and claimed the points at the intermediate sprint.

The Final Climbs

The chase still seemed to be not so terribly serious but the gap had come down to just over five minutes with 35km and two more climbs to go. The upcoming category 4 Rocchetta Sandri wouldn't be expected to have much effect, but the closing Sestola, with its gradient of up to 14%, had the potential to be a game-changer.

Perhaps BMC was worried about what might happen on that closing climb, as with some 30km to go they moved to the front and picked up the pace on the first descent. The gap was holding steadily at around 4:45. Meanwhile Belkin's Steven Kruijswijk, who had been riding with a fracture in his shoulder since the sixth stage, abandoned.

BMC's action helped to drop some riders from their group. Fabio Aru (Astana) fell back with a mechanical and needed most of his teammates to help bring him back up.

Garmin came back to help with the chase again and the gap dropped to 3:36 on the second climb. Tanner jumped from the lead group to take the points, and the favourites' group followed him only 3:19 later.

With just under 19km to go, Weening saw the danger coming up from behind and jumped from the group at a roundabout. The Dutchman riding for Orica-GreenEdge was one of the few climbers in the break and went for his chance. His action served to shatter the group. Malacarne caught Weening on the way up.

Malacarne and Weening worked well and efficiently on their way up, steadily pulling away from their former break companions.

A crash with about 10km to go saw Movistar's Gorka Izaguirre spend some time on the ground before fortunately getting back on his bike.

As soon as it looked as if there would be no successful chase, the gap started dropping again. Domenico Pozzovivo jumped with less than five kilometers to go, looking to move up from this tenth place overall, quickly picking up some 30 seconds on the favourites' group. He caught Enrico Barbin (Bardiani) who had chased the two leaders, and they had about 1:40 with just under two kilometers to go. Pozzovivo eventually dropped Barbin.

The two leaders started their cat-and-mouse game within the final kilometer, as if daring one another to start the sprint. Malacarne finally went with 250 metres to go, but the Dutchman moved around him and stayed ahead to claim the victory.

Pozzovivo crossed the line only 42 seconds later, with the Evans group coming in at 1:08.

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