Portugal celebrates as Ruben Guerreiro wins stage 9 and Almeida retains Pink

Ruben Guerreiro (EF Pro Cycling) outsprinted Jonathan Castroviejo (Ineos Grenadiers) to win stage 9 of the Giro d’Italia as compatriot João Almeida successfully defended the pink jersey

The Queen Stage across the Apennines, included over 4,000 m of climbing. After briefly skirting the Adriatic coast, the route headed inland, undulating continuously all the way to Guardiagrele, and then took in long, consecutive climbs up Passo Lanciano, Passo di San Leonardo and Bosco di Sant’Antonio, with two-figure gradients over the first ascent. Past Pescocostanzo and Rivisondoli, the route reached the foot of the closing climb in Roccaraso. The closing climb was nearly 10 km long, with an average 5.7% gradient, The last km topping out at 12% over the final kilometre. 

The pair went clear from three riders left from the day's eight-man breakaway on the final two climbs, with Guerreiro outsprinting Castroviejo on the steep uphill to the finish line 

Guerreiro’s Portguese compatriot João Almeida (Deceuninck-QuickStep) successfully defended the pink jersey, no GC battle was launched.

In the final steep kilometre, a gap amongst the favorites opened up with Wilco Kelderman (Sunweb), Jakob Fuglsang (Astana) and Rafal Majka (Bora-Hansgrohe) taking 10 seconds from Vincenzo Nibali (Trek-Segafredo) and nearly 20 seconds from Steven Kruijswijk (Jumbo-Visma) on the final stage before the first rest day.

Joao Almeida (Por) Deceuninck-Quickstep stills leads the race with 30 seconds lead ahead of Wilco Kelderman and Pello Bilbao.

Monday is a rest day as the race heads into a tough second week. Join us on Tuesday for Stage 10!

VIDEO: 2020 Giro d'Italia Stage 9 Highlights

2020 Giro d'Italia Stage 9 Top 10

1 Ruben Guerreiro (Por) EF Pro Cycling 5:41:20
2 Jonathan Castroviejo Nicolas (Spa) Ineos Grenadiers 0:00:08
3 Mikkel Bjerg (Den) UAE Team Emirates 0:00:58
4 Kilian Frankiny (Swi) Groupama-FDJ 0:01:16
5 Lawrence Warbasse (USA) AG2R la Mondiale
6 Tao Geoghegan Hart (GBr) Ineos Grenadiers 0:01:19
7 Lucas Hamilton (Aus) Mitchelton-Scott 0:01:32
8 Wilco Kelderman (Ned) Team Sunweb 0:01:38
9 Jakob Fuglsang (Den) Astana Pro Team
10 Jai Hindley (Aus) Team Sunweb

2020 Giro d'Italia GC after Stage 9

1 Joao Almeida (Por) Deceuninck-Quickstep 35:35:50
2 Wilco Kelderman (Ned) Team Sunweb 0:00:30
3 Pello Bilbao (Spa) Bahrain McLaren 0:00:39
4 Domenico Pozzovivo (Ita) NTT Pro Cycling 0:00:53
5 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Trek-Segafredo 0:00:57
6 Jakob Fuglsang (Den) Astana Pro Team 0:01:01
7 Harm Vanhoucke (Bel) Lotto Soudal 0:01:02
8 Patrick Konrad (Aut) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:01:11
9 Jai Hindley (Aus) Team Sunweb 0:01:15
10 Rafal Majka (Pol) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:01:17