Wout van Aert wins chaotic Giro d'Italia stage as major favourites lose significant time
Wout van Aert has overcome a torrid season of near misses and questions over his ability to win major races by claiming a stunning ninth stage of the Giro d'Italia into Siena.
The Belgian edged Isaac del Toro to victory in a two-up sprint after the final climb into the Piazza del Campo.
The pair had earlier broken away from a select leading group with 15km to go in a stage that took in many of the roads of the Strade Bianche classic.
Del Toro looked hugely disappointed not to claim victory on the stage, but the Mexican from UAE Team Emirates will enjoy the significant consolation prize of being the first Mexican rider to wear the leader's pink jersey.
"I have to say [Del Toro] did such an amazing ride," van Aert said in his post-race interview.
"I felt a bit shit to not pull too much with him, because obviously he's also a competitor for my teammate, Simon Yates, and had to leave the work to him. But still, it was so close to beat him."
For almost everyone else in the peloton, the day's racing was a catastrophe.
The 181-kilometre stage over the visually spectacular white-dirt sterrato roads blew the race apart, with several favourites losing huge amounts of time after crashes and punctures.
Kaden Groves had set the racing up by joining a five-man breakaway to help inject some pace into the racing, establishing a lead of around 90 seconds, but from the moment the peloton hit the gravel with 68km remaining in the stage, the race burst into life.
First, Michael Storer slid out as the peloton hit the second of the five gravel sectors, quickly remounting his bike and rejoining the group.
However, soon after, pre-race favourite Primož Roglič was involved in a heavy crash with Australian rider Chris Hamilton, Brandon McNulty and Tom Pidcock.
Roglič endured a horror day, losing over 2 minutes to the new race leader after being delayed first by that crash and then suffering a puncture.
The Slovenian dropped from third place and just 17 seconds off the lead at the start of the day to now sit in 10th overall, a whopping 2:25 behind.
"We take it, we finish it and I have to see what to do next," Roglič said.
"We will see. I mean, we'll see at the end what that means."
Storer also lost time, finishing 5 seconds behind the Roglič group to sit 11th overall, 3:03 behind, while Italian veteran Diego Ulissi, who wore the pink jersey for the first time in his career on his home roads, finished 5 minutes off the pace to surrender the jersey.
Jay Vine, who already lost time with a crash earlier in the race, lost a whopping 23 minutes, 5 seconds, finishing in the groupetto.
"This victory means a lot to me. I almost cannot explain it," Van Aert said after the race.
"To win this stage after a long period without delivering, finally again, it feels so good."
Van Aert had not won a race since crashing out of the Vuelta a España and suffering a nasty knee injury in 2024.
Under increasing pressure from the Belgian media, van Aert suffered a series of narrow defeats in the classics season, finishing second twice and finishing just off the podium at the Ronde van Vlaandren and Paris-Roubaix monuments.
Del Torro leads the overall standings by 1:13 from his team leader Juan Ayuso, with Bahrain Victorious's Antonio Tiberi at 1:30.
The race has a rest day on Monday, before resuming with a 28.6km individual time trial between Lucca and Pisa on Tuesday.
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