Author: Reuters

• Belgian beats Mexican rival in dash to the finish
• Primoz Roglic falls further behind after crash

Wout Van Aert battled to victory on stage nine of the Giro d’Italia on Sunday, holding off Isaac del Toro, who moved into the overall lead after the pair went for broke and stole a march on the rest of the field.

Van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike), riding his first Giro, used all his Strade Bianche experience to outsmart Del Toro (UAE Team Emirates), with Italy’s Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) coming in third.

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• Australian escapes for remarkable solo win
• Home hope Ulissi ousts Primoz Roglic from maglia rosa

Luke Plapp of Team Jayco Alula won stage eight of the Giro d’Italia on Saturday with a formidable solo effort on the 197km ride from Giulianova to Castelraimondo while Diego Ulissi became the first Italian in four years to take the pink jersey.

After nearly 20 riders formed a breakaway group with 100km to go, Plapp attacked the Montelago climb and the Australian rode to victory by a handsome margin and claim his first Grand Tour stage win.

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• Several riders come down on stage six in wet conditions
• Kaden Groves wins but no points or time gaps recorded

Kaden Groves won the sixth stage of the Giro d’Italia in a sprint finish on Thursday, but the stage was neutralised following a huge crash in wet conditions on the 227km ride from Potenza to Naples.

The longest stage of this year’s Giro had only a winner to celebrate as the crash, which occurred with about 70km to go, forced organisers to make the decision not to award points, time gaps or bonuses. Groves crossed the finish line a few seconds shy of five hours on the road, ahead of Milan Fretin. Paul Magnier, who had also crashed earlier in the stage, finished third.

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• Danish rider extends overall lead with third stage victory
• Britain’s Tom Pidcock grabs third spot on 151km ride

Mads Pedersen continued his domination of sprint finishes at the Giro d’Italia by narrowly winning stage five on Wednesday, his third stage victory of this year’s race which extended the Danish rider’s overall lead.

At the end of the 151km ride from Ceglie Messapica to Matera, Pedersen appeared to struggle with the pace on the climb to the finish, but recovered before starting his dash to the line early, just managing to hold off his challengers.

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• 21-year-old wins stage two by 1sec for Ineos Grenadiers
• Second is enough for Primoz Roglic to take overall lead

Josh Tarling of Ineos Grenadiers set a time-trial pace even the race favourite, Primoz Roglic, could not match to win stage two of the Giro d’Italia by one second in Albania.

Tarling had a nervous wait before his first Grand Tour stage victory was confirmed as the 21-year-old Welshman watched Roglic come so close, but the Slovene had to settle for second place with the consolation of taking over the leader’s pink jersey for Red Bull–Bora–Hansgrohe.

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• Danish rider holds off Van Aert in bunch sprint to line
• Mikel Landa abandons race after crash late in stage

Denmark’s former world champion Mads Pedersen edged out Wout van Aert in a bunch sprint to win the opening stage of the Giro d’Italia in Tirana, but Mikel Landa was forced to abandon the race after a crash five kilometres from the finish.

Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) was positioned perfectly by his teammates for the climax in the Albanian capital and held off Belgium’s Van Aert to become the first rider this year – and the first Dane – to wear the overall leader’s pink jersey. Venezuela’s Orluis Aular (Movistar) was third across the line.

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• Pogacar leaves rivals behind with uphill attack
• Le Court wins four-way sprint in women’s race

Tadej Pogacar launched one of his trademark uphill attacks to win the Liège–Bastogne–Liège classic race for the third time on Sunday. The defending champion made his move about 35km (22 miles) from the end of the undulating 252km (156-mile) trek to open up a gap of 10sec at the top, and then kept increasing it all the way to the line.

It was his third victory overall at the spring classic race, which is also one of the five “monuments” in one-day cycling along with Paris-Roubaix on the cobbles, the Tour of Lombardy, Milan-San Remo and the Tour of Flanders. Pogacar now has nine “monument” victories.

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