A day after 'making a mistake' in trying to match Primož Roglič's furious pace on the steep final climb of stage 8 of the Giro d'Italia, Remco Evenepoel will get his chance for revenge in the second time trial of the 2023 edition.
Evenepoel is eight seconds off the overall race lead, currently held by Andreas Leknessund (Team DSM), but conceded 14 seconds to Roglič, Tao Geoghegan Hart and Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) after being unable to follow their attack over I Cappuccini on Saturday.
On Sunday, Evenepoel will be chasing Roglič through the 35-kilometre pan-flat route from Savignano sul Rubicone to Cesena as the second to last rider to start at 4:25 p.m. local time.
At the start of the 164-rider list is two riders from Corratec, Veljko Stojnic and Stefano Gandin, who are almost two hours down on Leknessund after eight days of racing. Stojnic heads off at 1:15 p.m.
The start list is missing the main favourite, Filippo Ganna (Ineos) who left the race after testing positive for COVID-19.
Evenepoel put 29 seconds into his closest GC rival on the hillier opening time trial and is widely expected to regain the race lead from Leknessund and put time into his GC rivals.
The Belgian champion has a 30-second lead over Roglič already, with Almeida 32 seconds down, Thomas 44 and Geoghegan Hart at 48 seconds.
Leknessund, the last rider down the ramp, faces a brutal fight to keep the race lead starting at 4:28 p.m.
