The Giro’s longest day took it northbound for 239km from Tortoreto Lido on the Adriatic coast to Pesaro in the Marche region. Another sprint-finish saw Caleb Ewan of Lotto-Soudal claim his first stage win of the race and Valerio Conti hold onto his pink jersey after an uneventful day as far as the general classification was concerned, despite yet more inclement weather. 

With Lionel still away at his football match, tonight Daniel calls in the former Leopard-Trek team boss Brian Nygaard to review the action both on Saturday and in the race’s first week - and to preview what’s to come. Conveniently, stage 9 honours one of both Brian and Daniel’s passions away from cycling, as this year’s wine stage. More to the point as far as Roglic, Yates et al. are concerned, the 34.8km time-trial should see the first major shake-up of the general classification in this year’s Giro. 

We hear from Yates, his team boss Matt “Look” White, some of the men responsible for supporting Roglic’s challenge and TT ace Victor Campenaerts.