Strava stats show how deep riders went on Giro d’Italia stage nine time trial

The Giro d’Italia was finally shaken up during the stage nine time trial, as hopes were dashed on the course to San Marino.

During 34.8km of rain-soaked roads, we saw some GC favourites like Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) and Miguel Ángel López (Astana) lose time as Jumbo-Visma's Primož Roglič secured his position as race favourite.

We also saw some standout performances, with Strava stats showing how deep riders had to go to compete in a top-tier time trial.

Britain’s James Knox (Deceuninck - Quick-Step) has had a rough opening week to his debut Grand Tour at the Giro d’Italia, being caught in a number of crashes and battling through his injuries.

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The 23-year-old had planned to go easy during the TT with the hopes of recovering for stage 10 when the race resumes on Tuesday (May 21), but looking at Knox’s Stava stats, it was still a big ride.

He hit an average speed of 35.6km/h for the 58-minute ride, which took him to 36th on the stage at 3-30 down on winner Roglič.

When Knox hit the course early in the day, he topped eight King of the Mountain leaderboards and took 17 other top-tens.

By the time the stage had finished however, the Cumbrian had been knocked down the tables on most of the segments, which shows how fast these guys are going.

Knox did hold onto his top-10 on the ‘488-Fiorentino, 538-via Gamella, giro d’italia 2019’ segment, which is 4.37km long at two per cent average gradient.

He came in 5th, finishing the stretch in 7-09 on the same time as Thomas De Gendt (Lotto-Soudal).

De Gent was also a strong performer on the day, finishing 18th on the stage at 2-32 behind the winner.

The Belgian’s Strava reveals he held a huge 419 watts during his 55-43 ride, averaging 37km/h.

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De Gendt also topped the leaderboard on the ‘Dafnefixed: Via piemonte – Rotonda san Lorezo’ segement, completing the 0.94km in 1-10.

He also made it into the top-10 for the main climb of the TT – the 12.4km long segment at four per cent.

That segment was topped by Movistar’s Richard Carapaz, who completed the climb in 24-10 and averaged 30.2km/h during the ascent.

Carapaz averaged 364w for the stage, finishing in 54-10 which took him to 11th on the stage, 1-55 behind Roglič.