Giro d'Italia Stage 9: Belkov solos to win, Wiggins clings on, Hesjedal dropped

Katusha's Maxim Belkov attacked his fellow escapees from more than 50km out to take a fine solo win - his first as a pro - in Stage 9 of the 2013 Giro d'Italia in Florence today. On a cold day with heavy rainstorms soaking the roads at times, Team Sky's Sir Bradley Wiggins again risked losing time to his GC rivals due to his appparent nervousness on wet descents, finding himself more than a minute down on maglia rosa Vincenzo Nibali of Astana at one point.

Wiggins battled back, and although he came close to being dropped again on the day's final two descents, he just managed to cling onto the group containing the overall contenders. One man who was unable to hold on however was defending champion Ryder Hesjedal of Garmin-Sharp, dropped on the final climb to Fiesole and losing around a minute to his rivals.

On that last climb of the day, which will be a key point on the closing circuit of the road world championships in September, AG2R’s Carlos Betancur attacked from the GC group and overhauled the remaining members of the day’s break, the last being Colombia’s Jarlinson Pantano within sight of the line.

That made Betancur the second rider across the line, 44 seconds down on Belkov, although a fault with the AG2R rider's radio meant he was unaware that the stage had already been won, the Colombian raising his arms in celebration.

Meanwhile, tomorrow’s rest day probably can’t come quickly enough for Wiggins, who will no doubt be praying for better weather when the race resumes in the mountains of north eastern Italy on Tuesday.

The Tour de France champion’s confidence when descending in the rain seems to have been shot to pieces following that crash on Friday that caused him to lose nearly 90 seconds to his rivals on the way into Pescara.

Today, on the long descent from the Category 1 summit of Vallombrosa, he found himself a minute down on Nibali and his other GC rivals by the time the road bottomed out at Pontassieve, with 33km still to ride.

Nibali told Italian TV station RAI afterwards that he was unaware until it was too late of the difficulties Wiggins was encountering – his team car had been relegated to last position after a rule infraction on Friday, apparently – and by the time other teams such as BMC and Garmin-Sharp had moved to the front to try and force the pace, the Briton was already bridging back across.

It took an enormous effort, however, and although he had Team Sky colleagues to help, it was Wiggins himself, in a distinctive bright blue rain jacket, who did much of the work in rejoining the group in front, the effort leaving him spent as he struggled to hold on during the day's final two climbs, shorter and punchier than those that had preceded them.

Cling on he did, however, thereby rescuing a day that could have resulted in another big blow to his GC hopes. Instead, it was Garmin-Sharp’s Hesjedal who was the big loser among the GC names today, last year’s maglia rosa distanced on that last climb to Fiesole and losing more than a minute by the time he crossed the line at the quintessential Florentine viewpoint of Piazza Michelangelo.

Today’s parcours featured two big climbs either side of the halfway point of the 170km stage from Sansepolcro, the first of those being the Category 2 Passo della Consuma, its summit reached just ahead of the halfway point in the stage, with 88.2km still to ride.

It was Colombia rider Robinson Chalapud who attacked from today's break of 12 men, which included Blanco's Juan Manuel Garate and mountains classification leader Giovanni Visconti of Movistar, to seek the points on offer.

He was soon followed by one of the race's most consistently combative riders, Stefano Pirazzi of Bardiani Valvole-CSF Inox, who to the Colombian's evident anger left him with no way past to challenge to be first over, the Italian taking maximum points.

Ahead of the next climb of Vallombrosa, the first Category 1 climb of this year's race, the pair had been joined by Belkov, and the trio had a lead of more than a minute on their fellow escapees.

Behind them, with the rain lashing down as they negotiate the descent from the Passo della Consuma, the peloton was taking things very carefully, giving the three leaders an advantage that rose above 6 minutes as they passed the feed zone and started heading up the Vallombrosa.

On that 8.9 kilometre climb, which had a gradient hitting 12 per cent towards the halfway point, Pirazzi attacked his companions and while Chalapud responded, he was unable to prevent the Italian crossing first.

Coming down the other side, it was Belkov, however, who lives in the town of Prato a little to the north of Florence, but confessed afterwards that he had not undertaken any specific recce of this stage, who rode off to take a fine solo win.

Giro d'Italia Stage 9  
  
1  BELKOV Maxim         Katusha Team                 04:31:31
2  BETANCUR Carlos      AG2R La Mondiale                00:44
3  PANTANO Jarlinson    Team Colombia                   00:46
4  LUDVIGSSON Tobias    Team Argos - Shimano            00:54
5  EVANS Cadel          BMC Racing Team                 01:03
6  INTXAUSTI Benat      Movistar Team             All at same time
7  DI LUCA Danilo       Vini Fantini 
8  SANTAMBROGIO Mauro   Vini Fantini 
9  CARUSO Damiano       Cannondale  
10 NIBALI Vincenzo      Astana Pro Team 
11 NIEMIEC Przemyslaw   Lampre - Merida 
12 BRAMBILLA Gianluca   Omega Pharma - Quick-Step 
13 SANCHEZ Samuel       Euskaltel - Euskadi 
14 KISERLOVSKI Robert   RadioShack - Leopard 
15 HENAO Sergio         Sky Procycling ,,
16 GESINK Robert        Blanco Pro Cycling Team 
17 SCARPONI Michele     Lampre - Merida 
18 KANGERT Tanel        Astana Pro Team 
19 VALLS FERRI Rafael   Vacansoleil - DCM 
20 MAJKA Rafal Team     Saxo-Tinkoff 
  
Overall standings after Stage 9  
  
1  NIBALI Vincenzo      Astana Pro Team             34:19:31
2  EVANS Cadel          BMC Racing Team                00:29
3  GESINK Robert        Blanco Pro Cycling Team        01:15
4  WIGGINS Bradley      Sky Procycling                 01:16
5  SCARPONI Michele     Lampre - Merida                01:24
6  HENAO Sergio         Sky Procycling                 02:11
7  SANTAMBROGIO Mauro   Vini Fantini                   02:43
8  NIEMIEC Przemyslaw   Lampre - Merida                02:44
9  URAN Rigoberto       Sky Procycling                 02:49
10 KANGERT Tanel        Astana Pro Team                03:02