Giro d'Italia: Alberto Contador's lead cut as Paolo Tiralongo wins solo

Alberto Contador saw his overall lead of the Giro d’Italia narrowly reduced by Fabio Aru on Sunday as breakaway rider Paolo Tiralongo claimed a solo victory on stage nine.

Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo), Aru (Astana) and Richie Porte (Team Sky) - the top three in the general classification - all arrived together at the flat finish to a rolling 224km route, but Aru managed sprint away from his rivals and cross the line one second ahead in 10th place on the day.

The result sees the Italian close to within three seconds of Contador’s lead, while Porte remains 22 seconds back in third.

Tiralongo (Astana) formed part of the day’s 10-man breakaway but moved into a lone lead with just over 4km remaining and hung on to win in San Giorgio del Sannio by 21 seconds from runner-up Steven Kruijswijk (LottoNL-Jumbo) and 23 seconds from third-placed Simon Geschke (Giant-Alpecin).

The 37-year-old Italian, who has now won three Giro stages in his 17-year professional career, revealed afterwards that he had only joined the breakaway with the intention of helping team-mate Aru later in the stage.

He said: “Today we have had a great team. I managed to get in the right breakaway. My job was to wait and see what happened at Lago Laceno [at the top of a climb at mid-distance], but everything was OK so I tried to race. It’s a beautiful emotion.”

Contador added: “They [Astana] really put the race on about 100km from the finish. I had to really trust my team-mates. It was a good day today for us.”

For the second day in a row, the breakaway built up a big enough advantage to hold on to the finish, but it looked liked Tom-Jelte Slagter (Cannondale-Garmin) would be the man to take victory after moving into a solo lead with 60km to go and opening up a gap of more than a minute and a half.

However, with the Dutchman rapidly tiring, Tiralongo attacked out of the remainder of the breakaway with 14km remaining on the second last of the day's mutlple climbs and after catching Slagter 8km out, he left him behind on the final rise in the road.

Behind them, Aru attacked out of the peloton in a similar place to Tiralongo's initial move and only Contador, Porte and MIkel Landa (Astana) could follow. The quartet then worked together to stretch their lead over the rest of the field - most notably Rigoberto Uran (Etixx - Quick-Step) - and they finished together.

Monday is the Giro's first rest day, but the race resumes on Monday with a 200km sprint stage from Civitanova Marche to Forli.

Stage nine result

1 Paolo Tiralongo (Ita) Astana, 5:50:31

2 Steven Kruijswijk (Ned) LottoNL-Jumbo, +21secs

3 Simon Geschke (Ger) Giant-Alpecin, +23

4 Amael Moinard (Fra) BMC Racing, same time

5 Jesus Herrada (Esp) Movistar, st

6 Carlos Betancur (Col) Ag2r-La Mondiale, st

7 Tom-Jelte Slagter (Ned) Cannondale-Garmin, st

8 Kenny Elissonde (Fra) FDJ.fr, st

9 Ryder Hesjedal (Can) Cannondale-Garmin, +27

10 Fabio Aru (Ita) Astana, +56

Selected others

11 Alberto Contador (Esp) Tinkoff-Saxo, +57

12 Richie Porte (Aus) Team Sky, st

General classification

1 Alberto Contador (Esp) Tinkoff-Saxo, 38:31:35

2 Fabio Aru (Ita) Astana, +3secs

3 Richie Porte (Aus) Team Sky, +22

4 Mikel Landa (Esp) Astana, +46

5 Dario Cataldo (Ita) Astana, +1:16

6 Roman Kreuziger (Cze) Tinkoff-Saxo, +1:46

7 Giovanni Visconti (Ita) Movistar, +2:02

8 Rigoberto Uran (Col) Etixx – Quick-Step, +2:10

9 Damiano Caruso (Ita) BMC Racing, +2:20

10 Andrey Amador (Cos) Movistar, +2:24