Brambilla's attack was hugely impressive, punching out of the break with 25km to go, but attention was taken away by Dumoulin's struggles further back. Movistar had kept Jose Joaquin Rojas and Andrey Amador in the elite group along with their leader Alejandro Valverde, and they chose the Alpe di Poti as the time to attack the maglia rosa.
Dumoulin had looked to be struggling throughout the early part of the stage, and simply did not have enough in the tank to respond. He dropped first off the back of the elite group, then dropping back from the chasing group, eventually settling with Matteo Trentin (EQS) and Manuele Boaro (TNK), before they, too, crept away.
It was hard viewing, as Dumoulin gradually lost more and more time to the riders tracking him in the GC standings. He eventually managed to halt his time loss at around a minute, although whether this was more down to his efforts or the elite group slowing down was hard to judge.
I can't remember such a dramatic chunk of time lost this early into a Grand Tour by someone regarded as a GC contender. That being said, is he, really? His constant insistence that he's not been looking to the GC may have just been trying to deflect any pressure onto the other riders, but it does appear to be a legitimate claim after all, despite the Giro's three time trials this year.
Suggestions as Dumoulin cracked were that it might impact his time trial the next day. True, Dumoulin was some way off the pace of Primoz Roglic (TLJ), the man who he just pipped in stage 1 and who won stage 9's ITT comfortably from Matthias Brandle (IAM).
Tim de Waele
A heavy spell of rain caused the top GC contenders some serious problems, none of them able to attack the corners as much as the earlier riders. Ilnur Zakarin (KAT) was one of the big losers in the wet, falling twice and losing a minute and a half to his GC rivals. But Dumoulin went some way to burying the bad memories of the day before. The Dutchman finished 1 minute 58 down on Roglic, but crucially pulled back around 20 seconds on Vincenzo Nibali (AST) and Valverde.
After the minute lost on Saturday, it's still not a good situation for Dumoulin and the GC hopes he may or may not have. Surely his best chance of success was for him to build up a lead in the two first time trials, coupled with his punchy attack in stage 4, and then hope to cling on over the last week of the Giro. With that lead gone, and his energy reserves clearly already sapped, his slide down the standings seems inevitable.
Perhaps most significant from the weekend is Nibali and Valverde distancing themselves from their rivals, with the Italian leapfrogging the Spaniard into 5th overall. Mikel Landa (SKY) stayed in touch, but Rafal Majka (TNK) dropped almost a minute to the duo that seems set to fight out the GC battle between them.
Other notes from this weekend are that my pick for the points jersey, Marcel Kittel, withdrew overnight, citing exhaustion from his hectic early season. I've never been a fan of sprinters turning up to the first part of stage races and withdrawing as soon as the road gets bumpy, especially with the sprinter-friendly and arguably higher-quality Tour of California starting today. It just seems a bit disingenuous and disrespectful to the Giro itself. Rant over for now.
And another mention for our current pink jersey holder Gianluca Brambilla. Brambilla wasn't fancied by many to hold the maglia rosa in his home country, but the timing of his attack earned it, and he did a great job in the ITT to keep it off his teammate Bob Jungels. Two leader's jerseys in one Grand Tour is a great step up in results for a team that had been misfiring in the first few months of the year.
giroditalia.it
Stage 10 comes after the race's second rest day, giving riders chance to recover before a day of climbs and descents, with four categorised climbs and a summit finish suggesting another day for the punchers, with a possibility of some GC time gaps.
General Classification
1. Gianluca Brambilla (EQS) 34:33:04
2. Bob Jungels (EQS) + :01
3. Andrey Amador (MOV) + :32
4. Steven Kruijswijk (TLJ) + :51
5. Vincenzo Nibali (AST) + :53
6. Alejandro Valverde (MOV) + :55
7. Tom Dumoulin (TGA) + :58
8. Mikel Landa (SKY) + 1:18
9. Rafal Majka (TNK) + 1:45
10. Jakob Fuglsang (AST) + 1:51
Sprint Classification
1. Andre Greipel (LTS) 119
2. Arnaud Demare (FDJ) 91
3. Maarten Tjallingii (TLJ) 82
King of the Mountains
1. Tim Wellens (LTS) 21
2. Damiano Cunego (NIP) 20
3. Gianluca Brambilla (EQS) 16
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