Pre-race favorite Bradley Wiggins endured another difficult day on a rain-lashed ninth stage of the Giro d’Italia, although defending champion Ryder Hesjedal suffered most, dropping to 11th overall.
Britain’s Wiggins, who crashed on a descent on Friday, remained fourth overall, 1 minute, 16 seconds behind leader Vincenzo Nibali, despite for a time losing contact with the Italian and the other contenders on a technical downhill section about 55km from Sunday’s stage finish in Firenze, Italy.
Following a 20km chase by Wiggins’ Sky Pro Cycling team, the reigning Tour de France champion managed to regain contact with the peloton.
Photo: EPA
“I was racing right behind him,” Italian rider Giovanni Visconti told reporters. “I could see he was handling the descents very badly. I think when it comes to descents he’s now got some kind of mental block.”
However, Sky principal Dave Brailsford said Wiggins’ apparent caution on the downhill sections was never a concern.
“It was always going to come back,” Brailsford told reporters. “Bradley took it a bit cautiously on that descent and then obviously was confident his teammates would help him regain contact. There was never a problem.”
Photo: EPA
Canadian Hesjedal had been sixth overall going into the stage through the hills around Firenze, which was taken with a solo victory by Russia’s Maxim Belkov.
Hesjedal dropped back on the short climb of Fiesole close to the finish and lost 66 seconds on the other overall favorites.
As the race reached its first rest day yesterday, Nibali leads by 29 seconds from Cadel Evans of Australia, with the Netherlands’ Robert Gesink third, 1:15 back, while Hesjedal trails the leader by 3:11.
“Riders might seem otherwise, but they’re not machines”, said Charly Wegelius, Hesjedal’s sports director at Garmin-Sharp. “He’s not sick, but it could have been a combination of the rain and the cold today, and the efforts of yesterday’s time trial all coming together. He really went deep yesterday and this could be the consequences of that.”
Ahead of the favorites, Belkov secured the first win of his career when he completed a 140km breakaway through hilly terrain 44 seconds ahead of Colombians Carlos Betancur and Jarlinson Pantano.
“I had no idea I was going to get this win, I was cramping so badly in the last few kilometers and the main group was coming back so fast,” said Belkov, whose victory was the second for Russian squad Katusha in the Giro this year. “I’m better known as a time triallist, but I decided to go easy yesterday because that way I would be a lot stronger for today. Better first today in a hilly stage than 20th in yesterday’s time trial.”
After yesterday’s rest day, the Giro hits the mountains, with the race’s first major summit finish today at Altopiano di Montasio in northeast Italy.
The Giro finishes on May 26 in Brescia.
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