Chaos on Giro d'Italia gravel stage as favourites crash, lose time

[ad_1] Wout van Aert has overcome a torrid season of close to misses and questions over his skill to win main races by claiming a shocking ninth stage of the Giro d'Italia into Siena.

The Belgian edged Isaac del Toro to victory in a two-up dash after the ultimate climb into the Piazza del Campo.

The pair had earlier damaged away from a choose main group with 15km to go in a stage that took in lots of the roads of the Strade Bianche basic.

Del Toro seemed vastly dissatisfied to not declare victory on the stage, however the Mexican from UAE Workforce Emirates will benefit from the important comfort prize of being the primary Mexican rider to put on the chief's pink jersey.

"I've to say [Del Toro] did such an incredible trip," van Aert mentioned in his post-race interview.

"I felt a bit shit to not pull an excessive amount of with him, as a result of clearly he is additionally a competitor for my teammate, Simon Yates, and needed to depart the work to him. However nonetheless, it was so near beat him."

For nearly everybody else within the peloton, the day's racing was a disaster.

The spectacular white roads of Tuscany induced chaos on the Giro. ( AP: Lapresse/Marco Alpozzi )

The 181-kilometre stage over the visually spectacular white-dirt sterrato roads blew the race aside, with a number of favourites dropping enormous quantities of time after crashes and punctures.

Kaden Groves had set the racing up by becoming a member of a five-man breakaway to assist inject some tempo into the racing, establishing a lead of round 90 seconds, however from the second the peloton hit the gravel with 68km remaining within the stage, the race burst into life.

First, Michael Storer slid out because the peloton hit the second of the 5 gravel sectors, rapidly remounting his bike and rejoining the group.

Nevertheless, quickly after, pre-race favorite Primož Roglič was concerned in a heavy crash with Australian rider Chris Hamilton, Brandon McNulty and Tom Pidcock.

Roglič endured a horror day, dropping over 2 minutes to the brand new race chief after being delayed first by that crash after which struggling a puncture.

The Slovenian dropped from third place and simply 17 seconds off the lead firstly of the day to now sit in tenth total, a whopping 2:25 behind.

"We take it, we end it and I've to see what to do subsequent," Roglič mentioned.

"We'll see. I imply, we'll see on the finish what which means."

Primož Roglič misplaced over 2 minutes. ( AP: LaPresse/Massimo Paolone )

Storer additionally misplaced time, ending 5 seconds behind the Roglič group to sit down eleventh total, 3:03 behind, whereas Italian veteran Diego Ulissi, who wore the pink jersey for the primary time in his profession on his dwelling roads, completed 5 minutes off the tempo to give up the jersey.

Jay Vine, who already misplaced time with a crash earlier within the race, misplaced a whopping 23 minutes, 5 seconds, ending within the groupetto.

"This victory means lots to me. I nearly can't clarify it," Van Aert mentioned after the race.

Solely a handful of riders emerged from the mud in a very good place. ( Getty Pictures: Tim de Waele )

"To win this stage after an extended interval with out delivering, lastly once more, it feels so good."

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Van Aert had not received a race since crashing out of the Vuelta a España and struggling a nasty knee damage in 2024.

Underneath rising strain from the Belgian media, van Aert suffered a collection of slender defeats within the classics season, ending second twice and ending simply off the rostrum on the Ronde van Vlaandren and Paris-Roubaix monuments.