Nairo Quintana in maglia rosa as motorbike crash ruins stage to Blockhaus
Nairo Quintana was supreme and demolished every rival on the climb to Blockhaus as a motorbike crash ruined Mikel Landa, Geraint Thomas and Adam Yates' chances of winning the 2017 Giro d'Italia on stage nine.
Movistar's Quintana showed why he's one of the best climbers in the world as he rode away from general classification rivals Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida) and Thibaut Pinot (FDJ) up Blockhaus.
Quintana takes over the maglia rosa by 28 seconds to an impressive Pinot, 30 seconds to time trial specialist Tom Dumoulin (Team Sunweb), Bauke Mollema (Trek Segafredo) who sits 51 seconds down and Nibali who is one minute ten seconds in arrears.
But the story of the day came from a police motorbike that had abruptly stopped, taking out a Team Sunweb rider, resulting in a large proportion of the peloton hitting the tarmac - most notably the entirety of Team Sky.
It goes without saying, but Thomas, Landa and Yates' chances of pulling on the maglia rosa and holding aloft the gold spiral trpohy in two weeks in Milan are most likely over. All three are over five minutes down as a result of the totally avoidable and reprehensible crash caused by the police motorbike. Even with phenomenal efforts in the two time trials, winning a step on the podium is now a very unlike scenario.
Team Sky's Sporting Director Dave Brailsford was reserved in his frustration of the motorbike incident, but was frank with his assertions: "The motorbike shouldn't have been there, quite frankly, we can all see that, but equally I'm sure the guy riding the bike knows that too and won't be feeling too great so I do think we have to go back and have a look at it and ask the questions; why did it happen, why was it there etc?
"These things happen in sport and I think you just have to stay calm, not overreact, and not get emotional. My job here is to keep the guys calm and look at how we go on from here.
"Obviously it would have been nice to see how the guys would have got on today", continued Brailsford, "We were pretty confident with Mikel and G and wanted to see how they'd go but now we'll never know. Sometimes the goals move and you just have to react."
Thomas' Team Sky teammate, Sebastian Henao, said: "It's really hard for our team to take. It's pretty much as bad as it gets but that's cycling."
As for Quintana, the Colombian's teammate and major domestique, Andrey Amador, said: "It's strange to see Nairo riding so well in the first half of a Grand Tour, but seeing him in this kind of form is really good news. We weren't expecting to gain as much as we did on this stage. We planned to make gaps but we are surprised by how much."
An initial large break went up the road from the first km - Matteo Busato (Wilier Selle Italia), Matteo Montaguti (AG2R), Luis Leon Sanchez (Astana), Jan Tratnik (CCC), Alexsei Tcatevich (Gazprom), Marco Marcato (UAE Team Emirates), Iljo Keisse (Quick-Step Floors), Omar Fraile (Dimension Data) and Mads Pederson (Trek Segafredo) - and after grinding for some 30km the trio of Peirre Rolland (Cannondale-Drapac), Tomasz Marczynski (Lotto-Soudal) and Sacha Modolo (UAE Team Emirates) joined to keep a steady two minutes up the road from the peloton.
Cannondale-Drapac set an incredibly high pace of 50km/h, even with their man Rolland in the break, but being such a flat day until the final 30km, the race remained split all day.
Given the high pace and steep finish, it was never going to be a day for a breakaway win, and with the Blockhaus climb in view the peloton were beginning to assert control, bringing the escapees back with 22km remaining despite the best efforts of Marczynski, Rolland and Tratnik.
The race was thrown into disarray when a police motorbike stopped on the side of the road and clipped a Team Sunweb rider (pictured above) who in turn took out the majority of Team Sky and many others including Yates. Team Sky leaders Thomas and Landa were visibly injured and understandably angry, with torn jerseys and cuts road-rash, and were without doubt out of contention for the maglia rosa with the favourites avoiding the crash.
Quintana asked the first questions with his first attack with 6.7km to go and only Pinot and Nibali followed. Soon though neither could hold the wheel of The Eagle of the Andes and both were caught by Dumoulin and Mollema.
Dumoulin has come on leaps and bounds with his climbing and showed as such by following Pinot, while former general classification contender, BMC Racing's Tejay van Garderen, fell away to leave viewers questioning his capabilities that once had people backing him for a Grand Tour win.
The quartet of Pinot, Nibali, Dumoulin and Mollema could only watch on as Quintana scampered up the mountain and disappeared from view to win his third ever stage of the Giro and the maglia rosa.
Tomorrow is a rest day but stage ten on Tuesday could mixed up the general classification yet again with a 25 mile time trial from Foligno to Montefalco. It's not entirely flat but is a chance for a time trial specialist like Dumoulin to take over the maglia rosa and depending on how Thomas feels, could be a chance for the Welshman to gain some time back.
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| Credit: cyclingweekly.com |
Quintana takes over the maglia rosa by 28 seconds to an impressive Pinot, 30 seconds to time trial specialist Tom Dumoulin (Team Sunweb), Bauke Mollema (Trek Segafredo) who sits 51 seconds down and Nibali who is one minute ten seconds in arrears.
But the story of the day came from a police motorbike that had abruptly stopped, taking out a Team Sunweb rider, resulting in a large proportion of the peloton hitting the tarmac - most notably the entirety of Team Sky.
It goes without saying, but Thomas, Landa and Yates' chances of pulling on the maglia rosa and holding aloft the gold spiral trpohy in two weeks in Milan are most likely over. All three are over five minutes down as a result of the totally avoidable and reprehensible crash caused by the police motorbike. Even with phenomenal efforts in the two time trials, winning a step on the podium is now a very unlike scenario.
Team Sky's Sporting Director Dave Brailsford was reserved in his frustration of the motorbike incident, but was frank with his assertions: "The motorbike shouldn't have been there, quite frankly, we can all see that, but equally I'm sure the guy riding the bike knows that too and won't be feeling too great so I do think we have to go back and have a look at it and ask the questions; why did it happen, why was it there etc?
"These things happen in sport and I think you just have to stay calm, not overreact, and not get emotional. My job here is to keep the guys calm and look at how we go on from here.
"Obviously it would have been nice to see how the guys would have got on today", continued Brailsford, "We were pretty confident with Mikel and G and wanted to see how they'd go but now we'll never know. Sometimes the goals move and you just have to react."
Thomas' Team Sky teammate, Sebastian Henao, said: "It's really hard for our team to take. It's pretty much as bad as it gets but that's cycling."
As for Quintana, the Colombian's teammate and major domestique, Andrey Amador, said: "It's strange to see Nairo riding so well in the first half of a Grand Tour, but seeing him in this kind of form is really good news. We weren't expecting to gain as much as we did on this stage. We planned to make gaps but we are surprised by how much."
An initial large break went up the road from the first km - Matteo Busato (Wilier Selle Italia), Matteo Montaguti (AG2R), Luis Leon Sanchez (Astana), Jan Tratnik (CCC), Alexsei Tcatevich (Gazprom), Marco Marcato (UAE Team Emirates), Iljo Keisse (Quick-Step Floors), Omar Fraile (Dimension Data) and Mads Pederson (Trek Segafredo) - and after grinding for some 30km the trio of Peirre Rolland (Cannondale-Drapac), Tomasz Marczynski (Lotto-Soudal) and Sacha Modolo (UAE Team Emirates) joined to keep a steady two minutes up the road from the peloton.
Cannondale-Drapac set an incredibly high pace of 50km/h, even with their man Rolland in the break, but being such a flat day until the final 30km, the race remained split all day.
Given the high pace and steep finish, it was never going to be a day for a breakaway win, and with the Blockhaus climb in view the peloton were beginning to assert control, bringing the escapees back with 22km remaining despite the best efforts of Marczynski, Rolland and Tratnik.
 |
| Credit: road.cc |
Quintana asked the first questions with his first attack with 6.7km to go and only Pinot and Nibali followed. Soon though neither could hold the wheel of The Eagle of the Andes and both were caught by Dumoulin and Mollema.
Dumoulin has come on leaps and bounds with his climbing and showed as such by following Pinot, while former general classification contender, BMC Racing's Tejay van Garderen, fell away to leave viewers questioning his capabilities that once had people backing him for a Grand Tour win.
The quartet of Pinot, Nibali, Dumoulin and Mollema could only watch on as Quintana scampered up the mountain and disappeared from view to win his third ever stage of the Giro and the maglia rosa.
Tomorrow is a rest day but stage ten on Tuesday could mixed up the general classification yet again with a 25 mile time trial from Foligno to Montefalco. It's not entirely flat but is a chance for a time trial specialist like Dumoulin to take over the maglia rosa and depending on how Thomas feels, could be a chance for the Welshman to gain some time back.
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