Roglic emerges as man to beat in Giro d’Italia after time trial win

CTT

Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) won the ninth stage of the Giro d’Italia on Sunday as Valerio Conti (UAE Team Emirates) defended pink jersey.

Roglic, who also won the opening individual time trial, was quickest on the rain-soaked 35-kilometer (22-mile) route from Riccione that had an uphill finish in San Marino – the only time this year that the Giro crosses into another country.

The 29-year-old was 11 seconds faster than Victor Campenaerts (Lotto Soudal) and one minute ahead of Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo).

Roglic had been more than five minutes behind Conti going into the time trial but moved into second overall, 1:50 behind the UAE Team Emirates cyclist, who had replaced Roglic in the overall lead after finishing second in Thursday’s sixth stage.

Moreover, Roglic gained time on his rivals. Simon Yates finished more than three minutes behind Roglic.

”It’s a perfect performance in my mind. I did a good job,” Roglic said. ”I took it easy at the beginning and I gave it all at the end.

”It’s nice to take some time over the other GC favorites but the Giro is far from over.”

”It was very rainy for me but I stayed calm. My goal was to keep the Maglia Rosa so I’m very happy with the result,” Conti said.

Vincenzo Nibali fared the best out of the rest of the pre-race favorites, finishing fourth on a day which saw only 12 riders finish within two minutes of the winner. The Italian is 3:34 behind Conti.

Monday is the race’s first rest day before Tuesday’s 10th stage, an entirely flat 145-kilometer route from Ravenna to Modena.

Giro d’Italia 2019 – stage 9 results (Riccione – San Marino ITT):

1	Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma)	51:52
2	Victor Campenaerts (Lotto Soudal)	+11”
3	Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo)	+01’00”
4	Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida)	+01’05”
5	Tanel Kangert (EF Education First)	+01’10”
6	Chad Haga (Team Sunweb)	+01’14”
7	Bob Jungels (Deceuninck-Quick-Step)	+01’16”
8	Hugh Carthy (EF Education First)	+01’30”
9	Pello Bilbao (Astana)	+01’43”
10	Mattia Cattaneo (Androni Giocattoli-Sidermec)	+01’52”
11	Richard Carapaz (Movistar)	+01’55”
12	Jan Polanc (UAE Team Emirates)	,,
13	Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha-Alpecin)	+01’56”
14	Rafal Majka (Bora-hansgrohe)	+02’04”
15	Diego Ulissi (UAE Team Emirates)	+02’08”
16	Victor De La Parte (CCC)	+02’20”
17	Ben O’Connor (Dimension Data)	+02’23”
18	Thomas De Gendt (Lotto Soudal)	+02’32”
19	Scott Davies (Dimension Data)	+02’37”
20	Ion Izagirre (Astana)	+02’39”

Giro d’Italia 2019 – general classification after stage 9:

1	Valerio Conti (UAE Team Emirates)	36:08:32
2	Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma)	+01’50”
3	Nans Peters (AG2R La Mondiale)	+02’21”
4	José Joaquin Rojas (Movistar)	+02’33”
5	Fausto Masnada (Androni Giocattoli-Sidermec)	+02’36”
6	Andrey Amador (Movistar)	+02’39”
7	Amaro Antunes (CCC)	+03’05”
8	Valentin Madouas (Groupama-FDJ)	+03’27”
9	Giovanni Carboni (Bardiani-CSF)	+03’30”
10	Pello Bilbao (Astana)	+03’32”
11	Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida)	+03’34”
12	Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo)	+03’45”
13	Pieter Serry (Deceuninck-Quick-Step)	+03’47”
14	Bob Jungels (Deceuninck-Quick-Step)	+04’08”
15	Mattia Cattaneo (Androni Giocattoli-Sidermec)	+04’34”
16	Hugh Carthy (EF Education First)	+04’36”
17	Davide Formolo (Bora-hansgrohe)	+04’42”
18	Rafal Majka (Bora-hansgrohe)	+04’43”
19	Sam Oomen (Team Sunweb)	+05’02”
20	Richard Carapaz (Movistar)	+05’06”