Stage 9

The road

At the start

Evans in pink, Sestola ahead

Cadel Evans has the maglia rosa, 57 seconds up on Rigoberto Urán, after Michael Matthews' six days in pink ended on the slopes of the Carpegna. The Apennines get one more afternoon: 173 kilometres on wider, kinder roads to Sestola, where the last two kilometres rear up at fourteen per cent. Julián Arredondo takes the mountains jersey he won out on the road yesterday into the day.

How it was won

1. 148 km to go

   Garmin can't make it stick

   Garmin-Sharp put all seven riders on the front over Sant'Antonio, and still the break's six and a half minutes barely moves.

2. 224 km to go

   Rocchetta Sandri, and Sestola looms

   The gap is down to 3:19 over the little fourth-category climb. Everyone in the break knows the 14 per cent walls of Sestola are what will decide this.

3. 319 km to go

   Weening jumps at a roundabout

   Sensing the chase coming, Pieter Weening attacks the escape group at a roundabout with 19km left. The move shatters the break; only Davide Malacarne can bridge across on the rise.

4. 45 km to go

   Pozzovivo lights up Sestola

   Inside the final five kilometres Domenico Pozzovivo springs from the maglia rosa group and takes thirty seconds out of Cadel Evans in a heartbeat, riding himself up the general classification.

5. 5At the line

   Cat and mouse on the summit

   Weening and Malacarne stare each other down through the last kilometre, neither willing to lead. Malacarne finally goes at 250 metres — and the Dutchman simply comes around him for Orica-GreenEdge's third stage of the race.

The result