Stage 9

The road

At the start

Gravel, and pink on Ulissi's shoulders

Diego Ulissi took the maglia rosa out of the Marche muri, twelve seconds up on his Astana team-mate Lorenzo Fortunato and seventeen on Primož Roglič. Today the Giro borrows Strade Bianche: 180 kilometres to Siena over thirty kilometres of Tuscan gravel, finishing in the Piazza del Campo. Nobody wins a Giro on a day like this. Several riders can lose one.

How it was won

1. 1150 km to go

   Before the gravel

   A large break forms before the white gravel roads around Siena begin to bite.

2. 268 km to go

   The race fractures

   On the strade bianche the bunch shatters, dust and crashes splitting the field across the Tuscan hills.

3. 317 km to go

   GC men caught out

   Favourites are distanced on the sterrato, gaps opening that will echo through the overall.

4. 46 km to go

   Van Aert goes clear

   Wout van Aert attacks on the final gravel sector and only Isaac del Toro can hold him — the pair riding away together toward the Piazza del Campo.

5. 5At the line

   Van Aert wins in Siena

   Van Aert takes the two-up sprint on the Campo. Behind him, second on the day at twenty-one, Isaac del Toro becomes the first Mexican ever to lead a Grand Tour.

The result