A sprint brought together six riders to the top of the Blockhaus, where Australian Jai Hindley (Bora) defeated Romain Bardet to win the 9th stage of the Giro, at 1665 meters above sea level.
Spanish Juan Pedro Lopez (Trek) kept his pink leader jersey for 12 seconds, ahead of Portuguese Joao Almeida.
For the victory, Hindley launched the sprint from afar and overtook Bardet and the Olympic champion, Ecuadorian Richard Carapaz. Spaniard Mikel Landa took fourth place ahead of Almeida and Italian veteran Domenico Pozzovivo (39).
In the overall classification, five riders (Lopez, Almeida, Bardet, Carapaz, Hindley) are now within 20 seconds on the eve of the holiday in Pescara.
In this 191-kilometer stage, Italian Diego Rosa came close to the final ascent to the lead, leading a trio of counter-attacks (Peters, Dombrowski, Sepulveda), after the fall of Eritrean Natnael Tesfatsion who went straight in the previous decrease, without major bodily consequences. But the gap, less than two minutes into the peloton of favorites, melted even before the long and arduous ascent of the Blockhaus (13.6 km at 8.4%).
Italian Giulio Ciccone and Briton Simon Yates came out on the first slopes. Lopez lost contact after a collision 8 kilometers from the summit but valuables were rescued.
Hindley, 26, won a Giro stage for the second time, taking second place in the final classification in 2020, losing only on the final day to Briton Tao Geoghegan Hart.
Source: Radio-Canada
