The 2015 Giro d'Italia travels on Sunday evening to Civitanova Marche - 360km away from San Giorgio del Sannio, finish of today's stage nine - after another day of extreme exigence and suffering for all competitors. A 224km trek on roads of the Benevento, with only three categorized climbs yet without almost no flat from the start, saw a a flurry of attacks forming since km 0, with the Movistar Team responding today with youngster Jesús Herrada after an unsuccessful move by Rubén Fernández.

It was Herrada's responsibility to get into an eleven-man move with two members from Cannondale-Garmin: Ryder Hesjedal and Tom-Jelte Slagter. Permanently chasing since the Dutchman attacked with 50km remaining, Herrada made several attacks, which didn't bring him to the front but did reduce the gap to the front, from which Tiralongo (AST) profited to attack twice and claim the solo victory. Herrada who launched his final sprint from afar, dreaming of 2nd place, had to stay content with 5th, 23" behind the winner.

Back in the peloton, enormous wear and tear and another attack by Aru (AST), followed only by team-mate Landa, Contador (TCS) and Porte (SKY), brought the four to the finish with about fifty seconds on the first real bunch, led by Giovanni Visconti (14th, seventh overall at 2'02") and also featuring Amador (17th; tenth in the GC) and Ion Izagirre. Yesterday's winner Beñat Intxausti (30th) has momentarily lost his KOM jersey to Geschke (TGA) who has 50 points compared to Geschke's 39.