CESENA, Italy, 14 May: Pre-race favorite Remco Evenepoel won another time trial to move back into the overall lead of the Giro d\u2019Italia on Sunday.
\nIn contrast to the opening time trial, however, Evenepoel won by the slightest of margins on stage nine \u2014 the longest of the race\u2019s three individual time trials.
\nThe Belgian, who rides for Soudal Quick-Step, beat Geraint Thomas by just one second on the almost entirely flat 35-kilometer (22-mile) route from Savignano Sul Rubicone to Cesena near the Adriatic coast.
\nThat was enough for Evenepoel to win the stage and take back the leader\u2019s pink jersey. The world champion was 45 seconds ahead of Thomas, who rides for Ineos Grenadiers. Primo\u017e Roglic, who is considered Evenepoel\u2019s strongest challenger, was two seconds further back.
\n\u201cI don\u2019t think I paced it very well,\u201d Evenepoel said. \u201cI started too fast and my second part wasn\u2019t that great. I found some better legs in the technical part because I could recover a bit.
\n\u201cI wasn\u2019t feeling too well in the second part with the head wind. It\u2019s another stage win but it wasn\u2019t my best time trial.\u201d
\nTao Geoghegan Hart was third in the time trial, two seconds slower than Evenepoel. Just eight seconds separated the top five finishers in a strong performance from the general classification contenders. AP<\/p>\n
Monday is the Giro\u2019s first rest day before Tuesday\u2019s 10th stage. There are two categorized climbs in the rolling 196-kilometer route through the Tuscan Apennines from Scandiano to Viareggio on the Mediterranean coast.
\n\u201cTo go to the mountains with the advantage I have now is pretty good but Ineos for sure will have some plans to attack me,\u201d Evenepoel said. \u201cBut we have a strong team and a lot of confidence.
\n\u201cTomorrow I will have to recover well because my last two stages weren\u2019t my best days. Firstly I want to enjoy this victory.\u201d
\nThe race ends in Rome on May 28. AP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
CESENA, Italy, 14 May: Pre-race favorite Remco Evenepoel won another time trial to move back into the overall lead of the Giro d\u2019Italia on Sunday. In contrast to the opening time trial, however, Evenepoel won by the slightest of margins on stage nine \u2014 the longest of the race\u2019s three individual time trials. The Belgian, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-216201","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216201","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=216201"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216201\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=216201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=216201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}