As it happened: GC stars put on a show as gap to pink shrinks again after stage 9 of Giro d’Italia 2026

Eulálio riding very well to limit his losses. He’s 37″ down just off the back of Hindley, Van Eetvelt, Gee-West and the rest.

Arensman joins Ciccone at about 10″.

Gall gaining 36″ on the pink jersey and 58″ on Pellizzari.

Ciccone now distanced by the pave set by Gall and Vingegaard.

Thymen Arensman (Netcompany-Ineos) has starting bridging across to Gall and Vingegaard as they catch Ciccone with 1.8km to go.

Visma-Lease a Bike come back to the front of the peloton as they catch Milesi with a stage win looking potentially on the cards for Vingegaard.

Eulálio and Pellizzari are still a long way down the group but do look like they’re using a mid-climb descent to move up.

Callum Scotson hits the front again for Gall with Gregor Mühlberger sitting in between them. Decathlon-CMA CGM are really pushing the pace.

Eulálio sitting near the back in pink but Pellizzari is right at the very back of the bunch onto the final climb. Not a good sign for the Italian.

Ulissi left to chase on his own as Aerts is refusing to work with the veteran Italian as Milesi loses contact.

Into the Red Bull Kilometre now as well.

The break lead onto the final climb, the Corno alle Scale with a 1’48” gap.

The peloton have taken 20″ off the break in this fight for positioning in the descent.

Visma-Lease a Bike, EF Education-EasyPost, Netcompany-Ineos and Tudor lead the peloton over the climb with Vingegaard eases into second wheel as they catch Mattia Bais.

If Rubio wins the stage and Vingegaard doesn’t take any points at the finish then Rubio will take the KOM jersey by 11 points.

There’s a real amalgamation of teams at the front of the peloton at the moment with the gap stable to the five riders with them holding 2’12” gap.

Visma-Lease a Bike weren’t setting the pace for the stage win so Decathlon-CMA CGM return to the front to keep the pace high.

Milesi and Aerts off the back but I think that may be more Milesi trying to get the Belgian cyclocrosser to do more work.

Visma-Lease a Bike take over the pacing in the peloton after Decathlon-CMA CGM worked all day long. This is a statement of intent by Vingegaard but will they really up the pace for the stage win or will they just allow the break slowly go away?

Pink jersey Eulálio sat right towards the back for some time but is now right up towards the front. Pellizzari also doing the same.

Rubio and Ulissi are working very hard as Ciccone forces Aerts and Milesi to come through before then attacking and joining Rubio as he ghosts clear with Ulissi chasing.

Interestingly, Jan Christen (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) has just lost contact in the peloton. The former white jersey wearer maybe feeling the effort from the break yesterday. Maybe he’s saving his legs for a breakaway on another day.

Johannes Staune-Mittet takes over the pacing for Gall at the front of the peloton.

The sprinters starting to head out of the back of the peloton. Dylan Groenewegen surrounded by his Unibet Rose Rockets teammates. They should all easily make the time cut.

Bais starting to lose touch out front as the gap starts to yawn open.

The peloton is absolutely flying now with the gap plummeting to just under 2 minutes.

Ballerini, Geens, Naberman, Løland, and Marcellusi all dropped from the breakaway.

Ballerini is giving every ounce of energy for Ulissi and swings off as they go onto the Querciola climb with Ulissi leading the way.

Ballerini is pushing hard as the breakaway is starting to splinter with Geens starting to be distanced.

Uno-X Mobility use a roundabout to momentarily block the peloton but then multiple teams push up to challenge Decathlon-CMA CGM with Netcompany-Ineos and Tudor joining them.

The race is about to start properly climbing with the break coming to the base of the Querciola with a max of 9 points available at the top with just over 4km from the top to the start of the final climb up to Corno alle Scale.

Decathlon-CMA CGM are still pushing hard in the peloton. However, Ballerini has almost single-handily taken the time gap back up to 2’25”.

The leaders are pushing hard but their gap sits at 1’52” over the peloton led by Decathlon-CMA CGM.

The peloton still have control but the gap has gone out to almost two minutes with Ballerini working hard in the break.

20km to the base of the Querciola climb.

The riders are now slowly gaining elevation from here on with the gradients getting more and more as they go on with the first categorised climb of the day, the Querciola, not too far away.

Ciccone, Ulissi and Aerts make it across just after the intermediate sprint in Marzabotto. The gap back to the peloton now just over a minute.

Davide Ballerini takes the max points in Marzabotto with 12 points added to his tally.

Ciccone, Ulissi and Aerts look like they are going to make the catch as they are about 10″ down but the peloton are now just 1’20” behind them as the pace ramps up.

About 2km to the intermediate sprint in Marzabotto.

Aerts is currently not coming through with Ciccone and Ulissi in the chase with Ballerini now sitting on in the break out front as he waits for Ulissi to come across.

The chasers now inside 40″ from the front with the peloton about 1’10” behind them.

Ciccone, Ulissi and Aerts are now halfway across the gap as Pedersen and his Decathlon-CMA CGM restart their chase after the little climb.

The breakaway now only have 2’04” on the peloton with the pace being incredibly high.

The pace remains high with 90km to go and 2’25” gap between the groups.

100km to go

The gap continues to sit at 2’34” between the break and the peloton.

The peloton is in one long line thanks to Rasmus Søjberg Pedersen (Decathlon-CMA CGM) setting a high tempo.

The peloton have really got this breakaway on a tight leash now with just 2’25” splitting the eight out front and the Decathlon-CMA CGM led bunch.

The gap continues to fall. The break now have 2’32” on the bunch.

Tarozzi and Hamilton get caught with the gap to the leaders just under three minutes. This is a stage for the GC riders whether Vingegaard wants it or not. The one bonus for Visma-Lease a Bike is that they will probably take the stage in this scenario and maybe put another big chunk of time into Eulálio as well.

And now the race shows it’s true colours. Decathlon-CMA CGM hit the front of the peloton with a high tempo being set. Bahrain Victorious sit behind the sole rider from Decathlon-CMA CGM with Visma-Lease a Bike also following behind them.

It looks like Tarozzi and Hamilton have given up on the chase as the gap goes beyond two minutes. They can now drift back to the bunch.

The riders out front now have their team cars up with them and are taking the opportunity to take on gels, bars, bidons etc as they settle into the day.

The leaders have about a minute on Tarozzi and Hamilton with a further minute back from them to the peloton.

After an hour of racing the average speed is said to be 44.7kph.

If someone in the break took the maximum 59 points in the KOM standings today they would slot into third place one point behind Sevilla and two points behind Vingegaard.

The counter attack is from Tarozzi as well as Chris Hamilton. The frustrating thing for Visma-Lease a Bike is that not one of the riders in the break are dangerous in the KOM classification. If the break is to go the distance they would’ve wanted the blue jersey to be taken from them as well.

Picnic-PostNL and Bardiani CSF-7 Sabre go again and, this time, it looks like the peloton has fully sat up and this will be the break of the day. These new attackers have about a minute to bridge, though.

Out front, the break are working together well with everyone coming through to take their turns. The gap is just sat under a minute to the peloton, though.

The peloton is back to being one long line again as teams are unhappy about missing the break or not getting the right riders up the road.

Milan attacks and gets away without Magnier with him. That sees Soudal-QuickStep hit the front of the peloton to chase down the big Italian sprinter. This isn’t good news for the leaders as they gap drops slightly.

The open front of the peloton means that there is still space for new attackers as well with Picnic-PostNL unhappy with just having Naberman out front when riders like Rubio have made it in there as well.

Marcellusi goes again with a teammate on his wheel taking a few others with them but, again, the peloton comes back as Milan and his Magnier shadow come out of the bunch again.

The peloton splitting into multiple groups out front but Morgado and co sit up as it comes together again. Maltese rider Andrea Mifsud (Polti-Visit Malta) goes clear with Larry Warbasse (Tudor) trying to follow. Mifsud gets a gap but is quickly closed again.

A new attack from Morgado. He has a long line of riders following him but a group of 8 gets a good gap. That move doesn’t last long, though. Groupama-FDJ United are keen to join in which brings the peloton back to them.

Interesting that Manuele Tarozzi (Bardiani CSF-7 Sabre) has made it into this chase group as he is in the fight with Sevilla for the Fuga prize for most kilometres out front of the race. He also leads the intermediate sprint and Red Bull kilometre competitions. However, that is all brought back with Ballerini and Milesi out front by 33″.

Planckaert has sat up from the lead group and joins the chasers to make a group of 10 behind the two leaders.

Another new move comes from the peloton, though. Yesterday’s runner up, Andreas Leknessund (Uno-X Mobility) goes clear but has a string of riders following.

Lidl-Trek miss the move with Ciccone and can’t bridge the gap as this new counter move appears to be going clear.

More moves go clear as that counter was caught. Milan joins with Magnier latched onto his wheel again. Milan’s purple shadow.

More riders continue to try and bridge to this new move as Crescioli does make the bridge.

More moves go clear with Unibet-Rose-Rockets, Alpecin-Premier Tech, Uno-X Mobility and Bardiani CSF-7 Sabre going clear with Lidl-Trek trying to chase but as Walscheid swings off to encourage Ciccone to kick across, the move pulls away further.

Pinarello-Q36.5, EF Edcuation-EasyPost, Uno-X Mobility and Movistar all keen to be up there as well as Bardiani CSF-7 Sabre and Polti-Visit Malta.

So many riders have tried to bridge to the trio out front but now the gap goes beyond 40″ as the peloton sits up again.

And it is back together with just Ballerini, Milesi and Planckaert still 28″ clear as Picnic-PostNL and Bardiani CSF-7 Sabre start the game again.

Walscheid continues the pressure with Ciccone locked onto his wheel. Behind, Unibet-Rose-Rockets try to go clear as Antonio Morgado (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) starts to get involved for the first time since Bulgaria.

Walscheid tries to take Ciccone clear but as the race splits, Visma-Lease a Bike send Tim Rex across with James Shaw (EF Education-EasyPost). And, of course, Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe are all over that and the game gets another reset.

Filippo Turconi (Bardiani CSF-7 Sabre) and Ludovico Crescioli (Polti-Visit Malta) try to move but then Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) tries to lead out Giulio Ciccone. That sees points jersey Paul Magnier and teammate Jasper Stuyven (Soudal-QuickStep) coaxed out of the bunch.

Ecuadorian and Colombian champions of Jhonatan Narváez (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and Egan Bernal (Netcompany-Ineos) sitting at the back as the peloton have really eased on the pace with the leading trio now taking their gap to 24″.

The counter moves continue to stall with Milesi, Planckaert, and Ballerini still hodling 14″ on the peloton.

Uno-X Mobility starts chasing but Andrea Raccagni (Soudal-Quickstep) launches to try and force a new break.

The rider who finished last yesterday, Edward Planckaert (Alpecin-Premier Tech) joins Ballerini alongside Lorenzo Milesi (Movistar). They have 11″ gap on the bunch who are looking to have stalled in their pacing for now.

Davide Ballerini (XDS-Astana) launches for the second time. They will be very keen to get Christian Scaroni into the days break.

Forming a breakaway on a major summit finish day in a Grand Tour is really like a game of chess. The riders close back together again as Martin Marcellusi (Bardiani CSF-7 Sabre) hit the front.

Max Walscheid is leading out his Lidl-Trek teammate Giulio Ciccone in an attack. Also, Lennert Van Eetvelt (Lotto-Intermarche) is in that group. Interesting early tactics with Decathlon-CMA CGM getting Oliver Naesen up the road as well.

It is a beautiful roll out for the riders in a very sunny Emilia Romagna. However, the forecast for the final climb says we may have temperatures at around 4 degrees Celsius!