Place Name: - Il Campo
Address: - Il Campo 76, 53100 Siena Siena, Italy
Details: May 18, 2025
When the route was announced in January, nearly everyone would have circled today as either an opportunity or a risk. The white Tuscan roads around Siena are famous for Strade Bianche every March but they make their appearance again today in the Giro. The route is quite a bit different as the riders are coming from Gubbio in the East and making a straight shot into Siena. The five gravel sectors on the route will be familiar however, including the famous Colle Pinzuto at 15KM to go. The finish is the same as well, up the Via Sante Caterina and into the Piazza del Campo. The riders will have 181KM in the saddle by the end of a day that could be another one for the break.
Gubbio was dressed in Pink for the start of another perfect day for bike racing. Kaden Groves and Quinten Hermans of Alpecin-Deceuninck, Milan Fretin of Cofidis, and Dries De Bondt of Decathlon AG2R attacked as soon as the flag dropped and they quickly got a gap. A chase with Luke Lamperti of Soudal Quickstep and Taco van der Hoorn of Intermarché-Wanty formed and then surprisingly, the peloton shut down and the fight was over. Q36.5 and XDS-Astana started pulling in the bunch and with 161KM to go, Lamperti and van der Hoorn joined the front to make six leaders with a gap of 2 minutes.
Hermans led over La Cima with 128.5KM to go but Q36.5 were not taking any chances and had the break pegged at around 90 seconds. Fretin took a spill on the descent through a left corner. He was up quickly and rejoined the break but his bibs and jersey were ripped. Q36.5 were relentless in their chase, maintaining the gap at 90 seconds through Sinalunga and the second Intermediate Sprint.
Positioning and color blocking started with 78KM to go, about 10KM before the first gravel sector of Pieve a Salti. Ineos, Q36.5, Visma-Lease a Bike, Bahrain Victorious, and UAE-XRG were all mobbing the front to be ready when the road turned to dirt. The break started the 8KM long Pieve a Salti sector with 1 minute 45 seconds. The bunch thundered onto the gravel creating plumes of white dust. Lidl-Trek and Ineos were doing the pushing and by the end, only about 40 riders were left in the favorites group. The break had also split up and only Hermans and Groves were left with a gap of just 40 seconds.
Hermans and Groves maintained their gap with 54KM to race going into Serravalle, the longest sector at 9.3KM. The first GC casualty we saw was Michael Storer of Tudor Pro Cycling. His teammate crashed on the right turn into Serravalle and Storer came down as well. He was up quickly but the bunch was disappearing into the distance. Another crash with 51KM to go split the front group and defined the rest of the stage. Egan Bernal of Ineos was best placed in the front with most of the GC favorites in the second group but Primož Roglič of Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe had no teammates and was about 10 seconds further back, trying to get back on. With 49KM to go and 4KM of Serravalle remaining, the front of the race included Hermans, Groves, Isaac del Toro of UAE-XRG, Bernal, Thymen Arensman, and Brandon Rivera of Ineos, and Wout van Aert of Visma-Lease a Bike.
Disaster stuck Roglič once more. A flat tire near the end of Serravalle saw the group he was in go up the road as he waited for a wheel change. There was almost no chance to catch a breath after Serravalle and before San Martino in Grania started. It was almost impossible to get a read on where everyone was but we could tell that a group containing Juan Ayuso of UAE-XRG was 40 seconds behind Bernal, with Pidcock and Roglič at just over 1 minute with riders spread in between as Bernal went under 40KM to go. By the end of San Martino in Grania at 34KM to go, the lead group was down to Rivera, Bernal, del Toro, and van Aert with Rivera doing the lions share of the work. The Ayuso group was still at 45 seconds with the Roglič and Pidcock group drifting out to 1 minute 15 seconds.
Chris Harper of Jayco AlUla and Mathias Vacek of Lidl-Trek escaped from the Ayuso group. Vacek dropped Harper and made contact with the four leaders at 23KM to go after a herculean effort to bridge a 45 second gap. Del Toro put in a dig on the short but steep Monteaperti which dispatched Rivera and Vacek but Bernal and van Aet hung on to make three at the front. Bernal and van Aert were hesitant to ride with del Toro which allowed Vacek to return. Behind, the gaps were growing. The Ayuso group was now 1 minute 15 seconds back with Roglič, Pidcock, Derek Gee of Israel-Premier Tech, and Storer a further 25 seconds adrift.
Del Toro lit up Colle Pinzuto from the bottom and broke Vacek and Bernal but van Aert hung on by his fingernails. Del Toro led over the top to take the bonus seconds at the Redbull Golden Kilometer and with 14KM to go and a 1 minute lead to the Ayuso group, it seemed likely the win would come from del Toro or van Aert. Vacek dropped off of Bernal to help in the Ayuso group for his teammate Giulio Ciccone and it wasn't long before Bernal was swept up by the Ayuso group as well.
Del Toro did the majority of the riding with the Maglia Rosa as a distinct possibility for the Mexican. He kept the pace high under the old city gate on the Via Sante Caterina as the crowds created a deafening echo through the narrow street. Del Toro tried to ride van Aert off the wheel but at the top, van Aert got around del Toro at 400M to go which was the last realistic opportunity to make a pass before the finish. He rounded the final corner to drop into the Piazza del Campo and sprinted for the line. Van Aert came across first and put his hands on his head, a win of redemption after a difficult Spring with del Toro behind in second. The first GC group split to pieces on the Via Sante Caterina and it was Giulio Ciccone of Lidl-Trek who took third, 58 seconds after van Aert. Riders would come in for the next 2 minutes 30 seconds and it would take some time work out where everyone sat in GC after an incredibly hectic day.
Isaac del Toro took over the race lead and will go into the ITT on Tuesday wearing the Maglia Rosa, the first rider from Mexico to do so. His lead is 1 minute 13 seconds to his teammate Juan Ayuso and 1 minute 30 seconds to Antonio Tiberi of Bahrain Victorious. The main victims on the day were Roglič who dropped to 10th at 2 minutes 25 seconds, Stored who is now in 11th at 3 minutes 3 seconds and Max Poole of Picnic PostNL who fell 16 spots down to 23rd at 5 minutes 35 seconds.
Tags: Giro d'Italia, 2025, Stage 9, May, Giro d'Italia 2025, Gubbio, Siena, Kaden Groves, Quinten Hermans, Milan Fretin, Dries De Bondt, Luke Lamperti, Taco van der Hoorn, Isaac del Toro, Thymen Arensman, Brandon Rivera, Wout van Aert, Chris Harper, Mathias Vacek, Giulio Ciccone