The race is tailor-made for time trialists with climbing legs, although the first metres are on a seafront cycle path along the Adriatic coast. Soon the route points inland on a false flat of 22 kilometres. After entering the Republic of San Marino the incline increases and the last 12.2 kilometres go up at 4.5%. Yet, the ascent is far from regular. The first 5.4 kilometres slope at 6.7% to continue false flat to a gentle descent of almost 2 kilometres. The road kicks up again to 6.4% in the last 2.2 kilometres.
Roglic outgunned his rivals on the first day of action in Bologna. The Slovenian put 19 seconds into Yates, 23 seconds into Nibali, and 28 seconds into Miguel Ángel López. The first ITT was 8 kilometres long, while the race to San Marino amounts to 34.8 kilometres.
Favourites 9th stage 2019 Giro d’Italia
*** Primoz Roglic
** Simon Yates, Vincenzo Nibali
* Miguel Ángel López, Ion Izagirre, Bob Jungels
Check out the route of stage 9.
Giro d’Italia 2019 stage 9: routes, profiles, more
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