Overall race leader Cadel Evans successfully defended his pink jersey on yesterday’s ninth stage of the Giro d’Italia, containing all of his main rivals on the mountain stage to Sestola. The Australian

finished seventh, three places behind Saturday’s stage winner Diego Ulissi (Lampre Merida), who was also in the same time.

The group crossed the line one minute and eight seconds behind the day’s winner Pieter Weening (Orica GreenEdge), who went clear with 19 kilometres to go, was joined by Davide Malcarne (Europcar) and won the two-man sprint to the line.

Domencio Pozzovivo was the only one of Evans’ rivals to gain time, with the Italian netting third on the stage and paring back 26 seconds of his deficit. He remains one minute and 20 seconds back overall, though, and the Australian pointed out that he would be watched much more closely from this point on.

Irish riders Nicolas Roche (Tinkoff Saxo) and Philip Deignan (Sky) lost time, with Roche placing 50th, almost four minutes back and Deignan 76th, 10 minutes down.

Both are targeting stage wins later in the race. Roche had hoped to challenge for the overall but lost a lot of time in a crash on Thursday.