Maxim Belkov takes solo win in Giro d'Italia stage nine

Maxim Belkov wins, Giro d'Italia 2013, stage nine

Katusha's Maxim Belkov won Sunday's rainy stage nine in Tuscany with an impressive individual ride, achieving what is comfortably the biggest victory of his career so far and making it two stage wins for his team this Giro.

Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) comfortably held onto the pink jersey, but Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin-Sharp) endured an unexpectedly detrimental day, being dropped on the final category-four Fiesole climb and losing one minute and six seconds to all the other contenders.

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Stephen Puddicombe is a freelance journalist for Cycling Weekly, who regularly contributes to our World Tour racing coverage with race reports, news stories, interviews and features. Outside of cycling, he also enjoys writing about film and TV - but you won't find much of that content embedded into his CW articles.