Kooij edges electric Stage 9 finish after incredible Pogacar leadout

The wildest of finales saw Olav Kooij (Visma-Lease a Bike) snatch victory on Stage 9 at the Giro d’Italia as Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) and Jhonatan Narvaez (Ineos Grenadiers) were both denied another win.

After attacking late on the final climb, Stage 1 winner Narvaez arrived in the centre of Naples with 12 seconds over the peloton. As he better negotiated the tricky turns and complicated chicanes, passing under the flamme rouge with no one behind him, he looked primed to bookend the first week of the Giro with victories for Ineos. But then the sprinters – aided by a sensational pull from race leader Tadej Pogacar for UAE Team Emirates colleague Juan Sebastian Molano – roared back into contention.

The sprinters had to open up before completing the catch, but they carried enough speed down the straight for the result to come down to them. There was barely anything between Kooij and Milan but the Dutchman could see enough of a gap to know he had taken the first Grand Tour victory of his career.

The thrilling finale came about after 175km of the sleepiest stage of the Giro so far. The longest of the week, and second longest of the entire race, carrying the race along the skirt of the Appenines to Italy’s true south, began with a whimper. When the flag was dropped only two riders, Andrea Pietrobon and Mirco Maestri (Polti-Kometa) broke free from the shackles of the bunch.

Finding themselves alone after looking around and appearing to consider an ignominious retreat, they pressed on, while putting in the bare minimum of effort to build something of a lead. For 150km the pair stayed out front with their lead fluctuating from as much as four minutes to less than two.

The final 40 kilometres of the stage contained more climbing than the rest of the stage put together. The only categorized one of those, Monte di Procida, altered the shape of the race as Alpecin-Deceuninck increased the pressure on some of the sprinters less proficient in climbing. Tim Merlier (Soudal Quick-Step) and Fabio Jakobsen (dsm-Firmenich) were two of those who dropped out of contention as the road tilted upwards.

It was an uncategorised climb, however, that changed the shape of the finale the most, as Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal Quick-Step) took it upon himself to attack. Four riders were able to jump on his wheel, quickly catching Pietrobon and Maestri before working to stay away. When it soon became clear they lacked the firepower to make it to the finish, Alaphilippe attacked again, this time with only Ewen Costiou (Arkea-B&B Hotels) for company.

But Alaphilippe couldn’t do it on his own and into Napoli, with one climb to come, it all seemed to be coming back together – until Narvaez gave it one last kick on the final unclassified climb with 7.5km remaining.

Fresh, nimble legs combined with a narrow twisting street circuit enabled him to eke out a lead that nudged above 12 seconds even as Lidl-Trek and Jayco-AlUla organised themselves for their sprinters behind.

In the final straight Milan was forced to move off his final leadout man’s wheel and launch into his sprint with Narvaez still just ahead. Kooij, who had missile lock on Milan’s, in turn began his own gallop, while using Milan as a slingshot. Milan, however, missed the opportunity to shift left, steal some of both his team-mate’s slipstream and then a fraction of free speed from Narvaez as they sailed past the Ecuadorian. It was close on the line, but Kooij’s throw was enough to just carry him past the Italian.

Kooij’s maiden Giro win was, he said afterwards, “the one I was dreaming of.” Having lost chief lieutenant Christophe Laporte to injury earlier in the week Kooij said Visma-Lease a Bike “had to improvise a bit, especially in the last kilometre. Normally with Christophe we had almost a certainty to get me in position. Today we had to not so much stick to one plan but see how the race went, how it evolved, and do what was necessary.”

Pogacar will take a 2’40” lead over Dani Martinez (Bora-Hansgrohe) in the general classification into the first rest day, while Thomas recovered to stay third at 2’58”.