Remco Evenpoel wins the long Giro time trial but doesn't convince

Another stage victory for Remco Evenepoel, who regains the maglia rosa, but who, however, does not assert his superiority in the fight against the clock and barely makes a difference against his rivals. It's all open for the next two weeks with a lot of hard mountains ahead.

Tremendous equality marks the long time trial of the Giro d'Italia 2023

Bittersweet victory for Remco Evenpoel who, after the exhibition he made in the time trial that opened the race today failed to make the expected differences and, therefore, does not get the desired cushion for the mountain stages to come leaving a very open situation in the fight for the final victory of this Giro d'Italia.

Today came one of the decisive days of this Giro d'Italia with the 35-kilometer time trial between Savignano sul Rubicone and Cesena. A stage with a completely flat profile, perfect for specialists in the fight against the clock. A distance and a layout quite unusual at present that should be the place to establish important differences, especially for a Remco Evenepoel who left some doubts after yesterday's stage.

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Following the trend of the last few days, the rain made its appearance throughout the stage although, fortunately for the cyclists, the route did not offer any technical difficulties so it hardly had any impact on the final result beyond the low temperatures.

Little by little the different cyclists would parade along the route, being the first reference time for the 42 minutes and 23 seconds that Bauke Mollema marked at the finish line and that made him occupy the hot seat for a long time, until Stefan Kung lowered his time by almost a minute and marked the beginning of the most interesting part of the stage with the participation of the cyclists located in the places of honor.

From the first timing point the INEOS-Grenadiers put fear in the body with Tao Geoghegan and Geraint Thomas setting the two best times. Neither Joao Almeida, below his usual performance, nor, surprise, Primoz Roglic, who lost 15 seconds to the Welshman, improved on Kung's previous time. However, their joy was short-lived because, a few minutes later, Remco Evenepoel cleared all doubts and lowered Thomas' time by 11 seconds.

Identical story that would be lived in the second timed point, with Geraint and Tao practically matching the first part. Roglic's time trial also kept the same tone, increasing the gap with Thomas to 25 seconds while Remco Evenepoel gave in after his great start and set the same time as the Welshman.

At the finish, Tao Geoghegan, as expected, dethroned Stefan Kung by just 2 seconds. Three minutes later Geraint Thomas reached the finish line and maintained his duel against his teammate until the last meter and finally managed to improve by just 1 second the best time that Tao had until that moment.

Joao Almeida at the finish confirmed that he was not having his best day but saved the stage reasonably well with just 34 seconds of loss, nothing decisive with everything that lies ahead in this Giro d'Italia. For his part, Primoz Roglic managed to find the pedal stroke and despite not performing a time trial at the level that could be presumed in advance, he barely lost 16 seconds, practically nothing if we take into account the peculiar weather of the day and the 35 kilometers of distance.

Remco Evenpoel, after being practically tied with Thomas and Geoghegan Hart during the whole stage, made good use of the fact that he started further back and knew the references to put in a little more effort and managed to snatch the first place of the stage from Thomas by just 1 single second.

For his part, the leader Andreas Leknessund, as expected, despite a fairly decent time trial, lost 1 minute 15 seconds and thus obviously gave up the pink jersey, which went back to Remco Evenepoel.

All possibilities are open for the final victory of the Giro d'Italia with a situation in which INEOS Grenadiers with two assets of proven quality as Tao Geoghegan and Geraint Thomas —let's not forget that both know what it is to win in Grand Tours— wins many points, especially if we take into account that they have the strongest squad by far.

Primoz Roglic is still keeping us guessing, but based on what we saw yesterday, he's sure to put up a fight. It remains to be seen what his performance will be like when it comes to the big climbs and the dog-faced ascents of close to an hour.

For his part, the great favorite Remco Evenepoel, despite winning the stage, continues to leave the same doubts that he raised in yesterday's stage. He is still the top favorite but he has been showing himself to be a human cyclist for the last two days. As they said in a well-known Hollywood movie: "if he bleeds he can be killed". That's precisely what INEOS Grenadiers has realized and will certainly not miss the opportunity that opens up for them in this Giro d'Italia, as needy as they are to recall the old glories of the days when they were called Sky.

Stage 9 Classification

1. Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step) 41’24”
2. Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) +1″
3. Tao Geoghegan Hart (Ineos Grenadiers) +2″
4. Stefan Kung (Groupama FDJ) +4″
5. Bruno Armirail (Groupama FDJ) +8″
6. Primoz Roglic (Jumbo Visma) +17″
7. Thymen Arensman (Ineos Grenadiers) +24″
8. Aleksandr Vlasov (Bora Hansgrohe) +30″
9. Joao Pedro Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) +35″
10. Damiano Caruso (Bahrain Victorious) +42″