Stage 9

The road

At the start

Nibali in pink, four climbs to Florence

Vincenzo Nibali took the maglia rosa in the time trial and holds twenty-nine seconds on Cadel Evans, with Gesink, Wiggins and Scarponi all inside a minute and a half; Ryder Hesjedal has slipped to sixth at 2:05. Today runs a hundred and seventy kilometres into Florence over four classified climbs, the last two of them the Vetta Le Croci and Fiesole.

How it was won

1. 187 km to go

   Four climbs and an ice rink

   Four thousand feet of climbing with cloud gathering on top of it. By the Consuma the roads are slick enough to turn every descent into a lottery — which suits some riders in this race a great deal better than others.

2. 261 km to go

   Belkov goes over the Vallombrosa

   Chalapud and Pirazzi spend the climb attacking each other, stop to wait for Belkov, then drop him again. Over the top the Russian answers with the only thing that matters today: he descends straight past both of them and keeps going, and his lead is soon over three minutes.

3. 320 km to go

   Nibali will not sit on a lead

   On the Vetta Le Croci, Bradley Wiggins is a lonely figure in a pale blue rain jacket at the back of the group, and Nibali has noticed. He orders Astana to keep the pace high and goes hunting every second the Englishman's caution will give up.

4. 49 km to go

   The champion cracks on Fiesole

   On the last climb of the day the defending champion of the Giro d'Italia comes off the back. Hesjedal had shown a weakness in the time trial and everyone assumed he would answer it, the way he answered the team time trial. He does not. Florence is where his Giro ends.

5. 5At the line

   Belkov holds Florence

   Betancur attacks off the front of the chase and takes Pantano and Ludvigsson with him, but the forty-four seconds are already spent. Maxim Belkov wins alone in Florence after fifty kilometres out on his own, and Nibali keeps the pink.

The result