Jesús 5th in another thriller
17 May 2015

Giro d'Italia (st. 9)

Herrada vuelve a acertar con el corte bueno y pelea hasta el final en un durísimo noveno día del Giro, preludio del primer día de descanso en la costa adriática.  Visconti y Amador mantienen su top-ten en la general

The 2015 Giro d'Italia travels on Sunday evening to Civitanova Marche -360km away from San Giorgio del Sannio, finish of today's stage nine- after another day of extreme exigence and suffering for all competitors. A 224km trek on roads of the Benevento, with only three categorized climbs yet without almost any flat from the start, saw a a flurry of attacks forming since km 0, with the Movistar Team responding today with youngster Jesús Herrada after a frustrated move by Rubén Fernández.

It was Jesús' responsibility to get into an eleven-man move with two members from Cannondale-Garmin: Ryder Hesjedal and Tom-Jelte Slagter. Permanently chasing since the Dutchman attacked with 50km remaining, Herrada seeked for several attacks, which didn't bring him to the front but did reduce gaps to the front, which Tiralongo (AST) profited from to attack twice a claim the solo victory. Jesús, who launched his final sprint from afar, dreaming of 2nd place, had to stay content with 5th, 23" after the winner.

Back at the peloton, enormous wear and tear and another attack by Aru (AST), responded by team-mate Landa as well as Contador (TCS) and Porte (SKY), brought the four to the finish with about fifty seconds over the first real bunch, led by Giovanni Visconti (14th, seventh overall at 2'02") and also featuring Amador (17th; tenth in the GC) and Ion Izagirre. Yesterday's winner Beñat Intxausti (30th) has momentarily lost his KOM jersey to Geschke (TGA), by 50 points to 39.

Result