A voi! Stage 9: In which we move into unknown territory

They call this "medium mountain" and after seeing stage 4 I think we're all hot to see some more medium mountain carnage. A repeat performance is highly unlikely of course but this is a tough, tough day in the saddle with 215 km and almost 4000m of total elevation. Anyone wanting to cause havoc would have a very easy time of it on this stage and with a restday on Monday you could afford to go a little crazy perhaps.

This really is a hard stage to predict as it could take so many different turns. It could be a promising day for a breakaway as it is not an obvious GC day and the finish isn't such that some teams would be very keen to set it up for one of their riders as he is an obvious favorite to win. On the other hand it could easily turn into a GC stage if someone has the ambitions to mess things up and if the GC teams keep the timegaps small enough there could be a fair number of riders who would fancy their chances in those attack-friendly final 20 kms.

Apart from all the ups and downs there are two big climbs that don't really scream "medium" to me but I suppose everything is relative. The action in the finale should then be set up on the short and steep Passo Serra that summits with 12 km left of the stage. That ramp should work as a great launchpad for those that don't fancy their chances on the gradual uphill grind in the last five kilometers.

With stage 9 we have come as far south as we're going to go in this Giro and on the rest day the race travels north to Civitanova Marche were the race will start its northbound loop towards the mountains.

Chi vincerà?

Andrey Amador. With an almost identical final 5 kilometers to stage 7 it is hard not to mention Ulissi among the favorites here too but he hasn't looked like he is fit for climbing of this magnitude yet. So instead I'll go with Andrey Amador who has been hovering around impressively so far. If the stage doesn't become the anarchy we might hope for then he could be there or thereabouts again.

Amy's Food & Vino del giorno

Wine: Montevetrano Core Campania IGT
Core (pronounced Kor-Ay) is local dialect for "heart."  Core is sourced from particular experimental Aglianico plots on the estate in San Cipriano and also from outside growers in the classical Benevento

Food: Mozzarella di Bufala. A relative of the North American buffalo, water buffalo have thrived in the marshes and bogs around Naples for centuries. Locals have been making cheese with the milk since at least the 12th century, although we have no clue what that cheese might have been like. But by the late 1700s, southern Italians enjoyed mozzarella similar to what we know today.