Urán Crushes Time-Trial; Snatches Pink From Shoulders Of Evans

An incredible ride in today's 41.9 km individual time-trial by Rigoberto Urán tured the Giro on its head as he took more than a minute and a half out of Cadel Evans and stripped him of his race leaders pink jersey. At first it looked as though Evans was on a bad day, but what quickly became apparent was that Evan's wasn't so much on a bad day as Urán was on a brilliant day.

It was supposed to be the day that favoured Evans; a day in which he would put some time in the bank against those who might later try to win it back in the high mountains, and essentially he did do that though he must not have factored in Urán. Last week when a huge crash held up everyone but Evans and a handful of other we were wondering if the time gained by the Australian then, on top of what he might take in the time-trial, had eliminated the competition from the Giro, yet today we're sitting looking at the overall, thankful for that chaotic sixth stage for without it Urán might be the one walking away with the Pink jersey.

As it is his 1 minute, 34 second margin over Evans today puts him 37 seconds ahead in the general classification with Rafal Majka the only other rider within two minutes of Urán. Majka finished fourth in today's time-trial, 1-39 behind the Omega Pharma Quickstep riders' spectacular time of 57 minutes, 34 seconds over the 41.9 km course for an average speed of 43.7 km/h in which two of his team-mates also finished in the top six and three in the top ten.

In second was the new Italian hero Diego Ulissi at 1-17 who built on his superb stage win on stage eight. Indeed, had Ulissi not crashed yesterday and lost 4-21 to Evans and Urán, he would today find himself only two minutes back of the pink jersey and fourth overall. Instead he sits 14th, 6-24 down and out of contention. The future however is very bright for the 24 year old.

So is it a two horse race now between Evans and Urán? It is beginning to look that way though nobody could have expected that it would be Urán heading towards the mountains in control. Evans carried a 57 seconds lead over Urán into the time-trial and if you asked me I'd have put good money on him coming out with well over a minutes advantage on everyone else. Thankfully my wallet stayed in my pocket.

Pre-Giro favourite, Nairo Quintana looked towards this time-trial as one he would limit his losses in, but after a terrible team-time-trial in Belfast and losing more time on the split on stage six, Quintana was left needing to limit losses more than ever. In the end he lost 2-41 to Urán and will have to attack like a wounded animal come the mountains if he's to stand any chance of overcoming it. It looks unlikely though here's hoping he makes a go of it, and should he do it, then we'll be putting the 2014 Giro down as one of the all time greats.

For now though Urán is in control heading to a territory he favours and it is over to Evans to suddenly go on the attack in the mountains rather than try control the race around him as he would have preferred to do. Grand Tours are often unpredictable, though less so individual time-trials, but today was a big exception.

Result:

1. Rigoberto Urán (OPQS) in 57-34

2. Diego Ulissi (Lampre) + 1-17

3. Cadel Evans (BMC) + 1-34

4. Rafal Majka (Tinkoff-Saxo) + 1-39

5. Gianluca Brambilla (OPQS) + 1-53

6. Wout Poels (OPQS) + 2-00

Overall:

1. Rigoberto Urán (OPQS) in 49-37-35

2. Cadel Evans (BMC) + 37 sec

3. Rafal Majka (Tinkoff-Saxo) + 1-52

4. Domenico Pozzovivo (AG2R La Mondiale) + 2-32

5. Wilco Kelderman (Belkin) + 2-50

6. Nairo Quintana (Movistar) + 3-29