Quintana stamps his authority on the Giro at BlockHaus
Pinot second ahead of Mollema and Nibali. Team Sky wiped out by a motorbike crash. Thomas, Landa and Adam Yates lose over four minutes, their GC ambitions effectively over. Quintana in the Maglia Rosa.
Huge drama on today's incredibly tough stage up to the top of the 1,675 metre climb of BlockHaus.
Shortly after the start Keisse, Marcato, Montaguti, Busato, Fraile, Sanchez, Tcaatevich, Pedersen and Tratnik form the day's breakaway. Pierre Rolland, Tomasz Marczynski and Sacha Modolo bridged accross over after a long chase.
Movistar leading the Peloton, never left the gap widen more than 3 minutes. With 22 kms to go Marczynski and Tratnik were the last escapees to be reeled in.
On the lower slopes of Blockhaus Geraint Thomas, Adam Yates, Wilco Kelderman and Mikel Landa hit the tarmac after Kelderman hit a police motorbike that stopped at the side of the road.
Geraint Thomas didn't get up straight away. It later transpired that he had dislocated his shoulder and the Team Sky doctor had to put it back in the socket.
Meanwhile Movistar's blue train kept pushing on shedding the peloton on the lower slopes to around 20 riders.
Movistar and Quintana continued to shed the remaining peloton to around 15 riders and then Quintana attacked his closest rivals several times with 7kms to go.
The current Maglia Rosa wearer Bob Jungels was the first to be dropped.
Tejay Van Garderen, Inur Zakarin and Davide Formolo were next to be dropped.
Quintana finally got a gap on Nibali, Pinot and Mollema with around 5 kms to go on the 14 percent upper slopes of the fiercesome climb of BlockHaus.
Pinot and Mollema fought back and dropped Nibali, who struggled to stay in contention, losing nearly a minute to Quintana at the finish, with Pinot and Mollema losing 24 seconds.
Geraint Thomas, remounted and fought back with team mates Landa and De Rosa and made up some time, but lost over 5 minutes.
Geraint Thomas (Sky) said "It's ridiculous. That shouldn't happen. We were all racing to the bottom of the climb, and next thing I know someone hits a moto and we go down. My shoulder popped out as well. I felt good but then I crashed and that was it – race over."
"As for what his hopes now are for this Giro: I don't know. It's too early to think about that at the moment. Just let it settle down. I'm a bit angry at the minute. We need to sit down and work out what we're going to do."
Tom Dumoulin (Team Sunweb) - third on stage and overall, lost teammate Kelderman to the crash, "I'm feeling shit because we lost Wilco. Wilco was feeling very good and i was really comfortable with him. Now I cannot be happy today because he would have been be so important in the final week and I'm really disappointed for him. My own performance was good, and I'm happy with that, but losing Wilco is a real shame."
Nairo Quintana (Movistar) - stage winner and race leader, "We knew that this stage could go well. We worked all day, we were up for it, and we made a good selection. Then I gave it everything. We don't know if it's enough or not enough. I feel good. There'a lot of the Giro left. We will see as the days pass if it's enough or not enough."
2017 Giro d'Italia Stage 9 Top Ten Results
1 Nairo Quintana (Col) Movistar Team 3:44:51
2 Thibaut Pinot (Fra) FDJ 0:00:24
3 Tom Dumoulin (Ned) Team Sunweb
4 Bauke Mollema (Ned) Trek-Segafredo 0:00:41
5 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Bahrain-Merida 0:01:00
6 Domenico Pozzovivo (Ita) AG2R La Mondiale 0:01:18
7 Tanel Kangert (Est) Astana Pro Team 0:02:02
8 Ilnur Zakarin (Rus) Katusha-Alpecin 0:02:14
9 Sébastien Reichenbach (Swi) FDJ 0:02:28
10 Davide Formolo (Ita) Cannondale-Drapac 0:02:35
12. Bob Jungels (Lux) + 3.30
13. Tejay van Garderen (Usa) + 3.56
14. Adam Yates (Gbr) + 4.49
17. Geraint Thomas (Gbr) + 5.14
2017 Giro d'Italia General Classification after Stage 9
1 Nairo Quintana (Col) Movistar Team 42:06:09
2 Thibaut Pinot (Fra) FDJ 0:00:28
3 Tom Dumoulin (Ned) Team Sunweb 0:00:30
4 Bauke Mollema (Ned) Trek-Segafredo 0:00:51
5 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Bahrain-Merida 0:01:10
6 Domenico Pozzovivo (Ita) AG2R La Mondiale 0:01:28
7 Ilnur Zakarin (Rus) Katusha-Alpecin 0:02:28
8 Davide Formolo (Ita) Cannondale-Drapac 0:02:45
9 Andrey Amador (CRc) Movistar Team 0:02:53
10 Steven Kruijswijk (Ned) Team LottoNl-Jumbo 0:03:06
VIDEO: Motorbike Crash on the lower slopes of BlockHaus
NO!!
— Eurosport UK (@Eurosport_UK) May 14, 2017
Most of @TeamSky, including @GeraintThomas86, are taken out by a police motorbike ?? #Giro100 pic.twitter.com/iPJg7iXo4K
VIDEO: Stage 9 Highlights
