Welcome to live coverage of the stage 9 time trial at the Giro d'Italia.
Giro d'Italia race hub on Cyclingnews
Stage 8: Brambilla wins and steps into pink
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Twitter @SadhbhOS / @Cyclingnewsfeed
It's time trial day at the Giro d'Italia and it's not long now until we start seeing riders roll down the start ramp.
Cheng Ji will be the first rider to set off in a little over 10 minute's time. You can read through the full start order right here.
It is a very technical time trial with plenty of undulations to contend with. Rain has also been predicted for today. Here is the parcours for today's time trial.
Let us know your predictions for today by tweeting us on @Cyclingnewsfeed or @SadhbhOS. You can find the links above.
Jack Bobridge warming up outside the Trek-Segafredo bus, he is fourth rider off today. He won't be wearing the gold and green bands when he rolls out thought, as it is Rohan Dennis that is the time trial national champion.
Cheng Ji and Mathias Brandle are on course. There are one-minute intervals between the riders at the moment but that will extend to three minutes for the final riders to depart.
@Cyclingnewsfeed King Küng hopefully
And here is Bobridge beginning his ride, courtesy of Trek-Segafredo. Notice the big grey clouds above.
Jay Thomson will be the next rider off for Dimension Data. Thomson is a former South African national time trial champion (2013) and African continental champion (2009).
@SadhbhOS Going to be a very interesting day today I have a feeling Zakarin will be in pink this evening
As we wait for Ji to reach the first time check, we've got some non starters to inform you about this morning. Marcel Kittel departed the Giro d'Italia last night, saying that he needs to focus on recovery after a busy start to the year. Three riders also missed the time cut on yesterday's stage and they were Elia Viviani, Boy van Poppel and Iuri Filossi. You can read the full story here.
Brandle has gone through the first check point with the fastest time so far. The Austrian is 1:24 quicker than Bobridge.
Five riders now through the first intermediate check. Brandle still the quickest with Ji the slowest. The next rider to start their time trial will be Lukasz Wisniowski.
Michael Hepburn could set a good time today. He'll be off in a couple of minutes and here he is warming up a little earlier.
Brandle has already caught his minute man Cheng and is the first to go through the second check at 22km. He is sure to be the early benchmark but how long will his time stand?
@SadhbhOS Tom dumolin could make up over three minutes on his rivals in today's stage I reckon
The third time check is at the 33km mark at the top of the final climb. Brandle is currently over two minutes faster than the next rider at the second check.
Maarten Tjallingii has moved up to second at the first check point but is still 39 seconds down on Brandle. The next rider to start will be FDJ's Olivier Le Gac.
BMC's brass leaving no stone unturned at the start. Their first rider off the ramp will be Daniel Oss in three minute's time.
And it has arrived. The rain is now falling on the course. It's not too heavy now but if it persists then those descents will be made even harder.
We missed him earlier but Cancellara is on course. We eagerly a await his time at the first check.
There we have it. Cancellara goes through the first check 13 seconds down on Brandle and in third. Anton Vorobyev is 11 seconds slower than Brandle.
@SadhbhOS hard to know how Dumoulin will fare today, what do you think @SadhbhOS , can he be back in pink?
It is touch and go, and it all depends on how Dumoulin has recovered from yesterday's setback. However, it is feasible that an in-form Dumoulin could make up at least a minute on the other GC rivals and put himself back into pink. After yesterday's showing, it seems unlikely that he will hold onto it for too long.
Brandle is once again the quickest at the final check with a time of 45:36. He should be the first rider to finish and will get at least a few minutes in the hot seat.
Brambilla has gone for some pink accents on his Specialized Shiv but not overboard.
Brandle comes home in a time of 51:55 as Bobridge enters the final kilometre.
Cancellara has lost even more time at the second intermediate check. He remains third but is now 20 seconds down on Brandle, while Vorobyev is 15 seconds back.
Here is Cancellara at the start a little over half an hour ago.
Chad Haga is due to start in three minutes. The American rider put in a strong time in the opening TT and could be a dark horse today.
Brandle's IAM teammate Vegard Stake Laengen has gone out quickly and posts the fastest time by three seconds. Stage 1 surprise rider Primoz Roglic goes through with the third quickest time at 12 seconds down.
Here are how things stand at the finish for the moment.
1 Mathias Brandle (Aut) IAM Cycling 00:51:55
2 Artem Ovechkin (Rus) Gazprom-Rusvelo 00:54:41
3 Albert Timmer (Ned) Team Giant-Alpecin 00:54:48
4 Jack Bobridge (Aus) Trek-Segafredo 00:55:10
Tjallingii jumps into second place at the finish, 1:06 behind Brandle. We know that there are some much quicker riders out on course, so he'll soon be nudged out of the podium places.
@SadhbhOS @Cyclingnewsfeed mostly downhill section between intermediate1and2. doesn't seem the day 4 Cancellara who lost some time there...
Several members of the LottoNL-Jumbo team warming up earlier.
Cancellara remains in third place at the final intermediate check now at 29 seconds down. He's got a downhill run towards the line to try and make up that time.
It looks like Laengen went out a bit too quickly and he has dropped to fourth fastest at the second intermediate check. Roglic is now pushing Brandle closest at 14 seconds behind at the midway point.
Remember to tweet us at @SadhbhOS and @Cyclingnewsfeed with your predictions and we'll post some of them here. You can find the direct links above.
Cancellara posts the second quickest time of 52:13 at 18 seconds down. He managed to make up some