Wout van Aert wins Stage 9 as Isaac del Toro grabs pink jersey at Giro d'Italia, Primoz Roglic leaks time after gravel chaos

The Giro d'Italia's anticipated return to the white roads of Tuscany more than lived up to the hype, as chaos, carnage and confusion reigned from almost the moment the riders reached the chalk roads. A major crash the moment the peloton reached the gravel smashed the peloton into pieces.

Good fortune and good legs left two survivors, Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), fighting it out on the familiar Strade Bianche finish into Siena's Piazza del Campo. The experienced Belgian forced the young Mexican to lead up the steep Via Caterina slope before sliding past and negotiating the final bends to claim a memorable, redemptive victory.

Del Toro could be content with claiming his first maglia rosa and over a minute's lead in the general classification. Although his team-mate Juan Ayuso lost GC time, he gained more than a minute over his big rival, Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), who finds himself more than a minute down on his Spanish rival.

Although the Strade Bianche stage started in straightforward fashion, with five sectors and a total of 28km of sterrato, it was never likely to end that way. The early breakaway formed extra efficiently, as Kaden Groves (Alpecin Deceuninck) sprinted out of the blocks, in the company of team-mate Quinten Hermans. They teamed up with Dries De Bont (Decathlon AG2R) and Milan Fretin (Cofidis) to make it four up the road, before latecomers Taco van der Hoorn (Intermarche Wanty) and (Soudal-QuickStep) made their way across.

This proved a satisfactory composition to Q36.5 Pro Cycling, the team of stage favourite Tom Pidcock, who took responsibility for controlling the stage. Pidcock’s colleagues were prepared to give the break no more than a three-minute lead, though for most of the first 100km the gap was less than two.

The pressure increased as both break and bunch closed in on the first sector, Pieve a Salti. After several stages as the principal, Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) turned equipier for team-mates Mathias Vacek and Giulio Ciccone, driving hard across the narrow chalk roads instigating early splits down the line. Van Aert worked for Simon Yates, while Egan Bernal had strong support from Josh Tarling, among other Ineos team-mates. By the end of the first stretch of Strade Bianche, the peloton was whittled down to around 30 riders.

Just a few short kilometres later it was in fragments as first a localised crash felled Michael Storer (Tudor Pro Cycling), before a larger one in the main body of the bunch took out both Roglic and Pidcock, and impeded Ayuso. That left Roglic isolated, as Del Toro, Bernal, Thymen Arensman, Brandon Rivera (all Ineos Grenadiers) and Van Aert were the principal beneficiaries and driven by the steam of the British outfit they looked to take full advantage of their position. Van Aert could comfortably play the part of passenger, with his team leader, Simon Yates, in a group further back.

These five quickly made it up to the remains of the original break, Groves and Hermans, before riding the Alpecin pair off the wheels. Arensman also fell away, as Rivera did the most to set up the group for stage and overall success. Behind, everyone else was doing their best to limit losses but as Del Toro moved into virtual pink, the hopes of Roglic and Pidcock were fading fast under the Tuscan skies. Ayuso and company appeared to just about be in touch, until they were not. From behind an impressive effort from Vacek enabled him to join the front five.

As the stage entered the final 20km, Del Toro was given full permission from his team to ride for his own chances and did his best to dispense with the rest and go solo to the finish. Although he was able to drop Bernal and Vacek on the final stretch of gravel, the 2.4km, uphill Colle Pinzuto, Van Aert stuck to his wheel like glue. With Del Toro’s GC rival Yates on his team, the Belgian could resist appeals to come through and take a turn. 

With the finale into Siena an exact replica of that of Strade Bianche, Van Aert knew to win the stage he would need every ounce of the energy he was able to save. There was nothing between them on the Via Caterina. Del Toro led for most of its 600 metres, as Van Aert popped out and around just before the top. Leading into the narrow winding streets he held onto the run-in to the Piazza del Campo for a famous 50th road victory of his career.

Although he will have to wait for a first major career win, Del Toro could console himself by becoming the first Mexican man to don the maglia rosa. He now leads the race by over a minute from his team-mate Ayuso, with Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain Victorious) in third. Roglic came home more than two minutes down, and is now all but out of it in 10th place and at 2'25'' back on the leader.

"It had to be here," said an exhausted Van Aert afterwards, "because this was where my road career started back in 2018. To win this stage after a long period without delivering, finally, it feels so good."

He also paid tribute to Del Toro's efforts throughout the stage:

"Isaac did such an amazing ride. I felt a bit s*** to not pull too much with him because obviously he’s almost a competitor for my team-mate Simon Yates. I had to leave the work to him but still then it was close."

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