SIENA, Italy (AFP) — Wout van Aert snapped a dry run by winning stage nine of the Giro d’Italia on Sunday as Mexican rookie Isaac del Toro took the overall race lead after coming an agonising second.

For the 21-year-old del Toro, racing in his first Giro, this was a landmark performance that puts the UAE rider on the cycling map after he and Van Aert dropped everyone else.

“It’s like the best dream, amazing,” said del Toro.

Italian Giulio Ciccone was third, 58 seconds down, while title pretenders Richard Carapaz, Simon Yates, Antonio Tiberi, Juan Ayuso, Egan Bernal and Adam Yates were all around a minute adrift.

Bernal said after the race del Toro could win the Giro.

“I can’t believe Bernal has said this about me. But dreaming is free, right?” said the powerfully built youngster.

Dreams aside, del Toro may well find himself in the pink jersey for some time.

On the challenging white gravel roads towards Siena’s iconic 12th-century Piazza del Campo finish line Primoz Roglic, Tom Pidcock, Derek Gee and Michael Storer all lost considerable time in the overall standings.

Pre-race favourite Roglic fell and is at 2min 25sec in 10th place.

“Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose,” said the Slovenian.

Del Toro now leads teammate Ayuso by 1min 13sec overall. Tiberi is 1:30 off the pace, with Carapaz at 1:40 and Ciccone rounding out the top five at 1:41.

For Van Aert it was a long awaited 50th win and the Belgian lay gasping on the floor of the medieval square that hosts a bareback horse race twice a year.

“I can’t describe what it feels like. It’s amazing to win again,” said Van Aert, who last won at the Vuelta last year.

“I felt bad not cooperating with del Toro at the end, but he’s a rival of my teammate Simon Yates for the the overall title,” he said, describing del Toro as exceptional.

Van Aert and del Toro broke free from Bernal with 30km to go after it had seemed the Colombian was finally fully over his terrible injuries from a training crash in 2022, but now the 2019 Tour de France and 2021 Giro champion appears to be back in the mix at least.

Van Aert refused to work with del Toro, who did most of the work over the final kilometres, possibly costing him the stage win on his big day.

On a clear day in the lush rolling fields of Tuscany, the stage was transformed by the five white gravel sectors measuring 29.5km.

Dressed entirely in pink to start the morning, veteran Italian journeyman Diego Ulissi lost his overnight lead in billowing clouds of thick white dust, but was cheered all the way in his home region.

Monday is a rest day while stage 10 on Tuesday is an almost flat 28.6km individual time trial.