The leader of the overall standings at the Giro d'Italia coming into Stage 9, many had written off the young Spaniard as being sure to lose the coveted leader's jersey to the more experienced general classification riders present.
The Spaniard crossed the line one minute and 46 seconds after stage winner Jai Hindley (Bora-Hansgrohe) had finished, just hanging onto the race lead after being dropped with eight kilometres still to race. López made it home, and after some quick calculations, it was clear that López's performance was enough to secure the pink jersey for another day as he led João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) by 12 seconds.
He celebrated at the finish, but in his interview he was quick to apologise for an incident during the stage where he threw a bidon at Sam Oomen (Jumbo-Visma) after the two collided with 16.9 kilometres to race. The pair appeared to come together briefly, with López unclipping, before he recovered, taking the time to fling a bottle at the Dutch rider.
“I want to say sorry to Sam Oomen, because in one moment we are in danger and he try to push me outside and I lose my mind. I throw to him one bottle and I want to say sorry.”
"I felt good, but I was close to crashing and that was hard on my head,”clarified López when talking to reporters. “I had to stay concentrated and keep my head focussed on the race."
López also expressed his delight at staying in the overall race lead after the stage, his sixth in a row after taking the lead on Mt Etna.
"This is my first Giro and I never expected to get the maglia, so it's hard to believe I still have it," López said. "I'm very tired, but fortunately there's a rest day tomorrow [Monday]."
López can hope his run in pink continues for a few more days, with a number of intermediate or flat stages until next weekend, and he should be relatively safe until at least Stage 14.
"When I started this stage my dream was to have the pink jersey for just one more day, " López said, "And now it's come true."
The Giro d’Italia is on a rest day, but will return with Stage 10 on Tuesday evening, a 196km stage with a hilly finale from Pescara to Jesi. Watch on Tuesday from 8.10pm AEST on SBS On Demand, with the SBS broadcast starting at 11.00pm AEST. WA viewers can tune in from 9pm AWST on SBS VICELAND.
