A second brutal mountain stage ends week 1 of the Giro. Giro d'Italia stage 9 preview

After Jhonatan Narvaez's brilliant victory from the break yesterday, stage 9 promises to be another GC battle with Vingegaard and co looking to take the pink jersey away from Afonso Eulalio before the second rest day tomorrow.



The stage from Cervia to Cornio Alle Scale is a typical Giro mountain stage, flat half of the stage up until the intermediate sprint, followed by an absolute brute of a finale where the road goes uphill for pretty much the final 68km, apart from a small descent in between the day's two categorised climbs, with the gradients just getting steeper and steeper the further into the climbs they get it promises to be a stage with massive time gaps between the GC favourites although the final climb is listed at 10.8km at just over 6% the final 3km average are over 10% with gradients of up to 15% at stages.

This, in theory, could be a day for a breakaway if composed correctly, with no threats to GC up the road, as most of the uphill gradients are not severe, if a group with good climbers like Koen Bouwman and likes are up the road they could be given a big enough margin to take the stage but this feels unlikely given what is a stake for the GC men with a rest day tomorrow they are likely to absolutely empty the tank today and Visma and Red Bull are unliekly to give a breakaway much margin.

The favourite for the stage is Jonas Vingegaard, undoubtedly, given he won two days ago on top of a harder mountain than this one, the changing gradients of the final climb will suit him much more than his closest competitor on Blockhaus, Felix Gall, who is at his best on a long, consistent climb, but if he can stay close to Vingegaard today while distancing Pellizzari, Hindley and O'Connor like he did on Blockhaus he becomes the favourite for second place at this years Giro ahead of the Red Bull duo of Hindley and Pellizzari who will be looking to claw back time on particularly Gall today and Vingegaard if he has an off day as unlikely as that appears to be.

I'm predicting Vingegaard wins the stage, followed by Pellizzari and Hindley, who i think will gain time on the rest of the GC guys like Gall, O'Connor and Arensman.

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