Egan Bernal Back in the Pink Jersey, and Other Cool News from the World of Cycling

Bernal wins it

Stage nine marked the first-ever Grand Tour stage win for Egan Bernal. Hard to believe those words, isn’t it? But yesterday he was a class above the other GC contenders. And had the unpaved gravel section at the top of the day’s final climb been longer, surely he would have made up even more time. However, the real test will come with all those hard climbs in the final week of the race. But with the strong Ineos Grenadiers team to back him, it will be hard for anyone to take the pink jersey away from Bernal.

“I cannot believe what just happened, I just won my first stage in a Grand Tour,” Bernal said after the finish. “I made a lot of sacrifices to get where I am now. I was thinking I would do well today, but I was not sure whether I could win the stage.”

2021 Giro d’Italia – Stage 9 results

1. Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) – 4:08:23
2. Giulio Ciccone (Trek-Segafredo) + 7s
3. Aleksandr Vlasov (Astana-Premier Tech)
4. Remco Evenepoel (Deceuninck – Quick-Step) + 10s
5. Dan Martin (Israel Start-Up Nation)
6. Damiano Caruso (Bahrain Victorious) + 12s
7. Romain Bardet (Team DSM)
8. Marc Soler (Movistar)
9. Daniel Martínez (Ineos Grenadiers)
10. João Almeida (Deceuninck – Quick-Step)

General classification

1. Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) – 35:19:22
2. Remco Evenepoel (Deceuninck – Quick-Step) + 15s
3. Aleksandr Vlasov (Astana-Premier Tech) + 21s
4. Giulio Ciccone (Trek-Segafredo) + 36s
5. Attila Valter (Groupama-FDJ) + 43s
6. Hugh Carthy (EF Education-Nippo) + 44s
7. Damiano Caruso (Bahrain Victorious) + 51s
8. Dan Martin (Israel Start-Up Nation)
9. Simon Yates (Team BikeExchange) + 55s
10. Davide Formolo (UAE Team Emirates) + 1:01

Who’s a good dog?

Out-of-this-world performance

Captain Obvious to the rescue

What happened here?

Ouch