Jonas Vingegaard claimed his third Vuelta a España victory to convey the lead within the basic classification inside touching distance on Stage 9.
The Visma-Lease a Bike rider, now trails the pink jersey by lower than 40 seconds forward of the remainder day, with Torstein Træen (Bahrain Victorious) holding onto the highest spot.
Tom Pidcock (Q36.5 Professional Biking) confirmed up and impressed within the race for the GC, coming in second on a mountain end behind Vingegaard and pipped João Almeida (Emirates XRG) on the road, leaping eight locations within the total standings.
Consequently, heading into the ultimate day earlier than the remainder, there have been two questions on everybody’s minds: will Vingegaard end the week on a excessive with a stage win and regain the pink jersey, or will Træen proceed to steer the Grand Tour into subsequent week?
Ultimately, it was a mixture of each, with Vingegaard successful however Træen holding on pink.
HOW IT HAPPENED
Kicking off in Alfaro with a right away 10km ascent, it was anticipated that the riders would capitalise and type a breakaway, and but it was cagey.
It was not till 15km had handed that 4 riders, Stefan Küng (Groupama–FDJ), Jordan Labrosse (Decathlon–AG2R La Mondiale), Alec Segaert and Liam Slock (Lotto), moved up the highway, however the effort failed quickly sufficient.
This was the development that plagued the primary hour of racing, with all makes an attempt to interrupt free being reined in by the peloton with ease, regardless of the gradual and undulating terrain that opened the primary 45km of racing.
After which, lastly, the racing started with Michal Kwiatkowski (Ineos Grenadiers) and Archie Ryan (EF Schooling–EasyPost) breaking from the peloton forward of the primary (and solely) main descent of the day, constructing a result in over 25 seconds.
Not lengthy after, Slock and Michel Hessmann (Movistar) set off, constructing an instantaneous 15-second hole from the peloton, and pursuing the 2 leaders who led the chasers by 10 seconds.
Then Kevin Vermaerke (Picnic–PostNL) attacked from the peloton and made the juncture to the leaders, who held a 20-second lead.
After numerous makes an attempt to snap the elastic, the five-man group finally broke free with 130km to go and constructed a lead of a minute and a half.
From there, the climate was the one factor to alter from sunny to heavy rain, as their lead was unbridgeable for the subsequent 90km.
The hole continued to develop by the 100km to go mark, to a considerable two minutes, and throughout the subsequent 10km, it prolonged by one other 40 seconds.
It was not till 50km mark that the peloton started to inject some severe tempo forward of the intermediate dash.
With solely factors accessible for the primary 5 riders, the peloton started to reel within the breakaway and with 40km remaining, they now trailed by one minute 40 seconds.
However it was too little too late for the peloton as they nonetheless lagged over a minute behind when Slock took the total 20 factors uncontested.
There was no relaxation for the depraved both, with the method of the ultimate 20km, the breakaway needed to maintain off a charging peloton for so long as doable earlier than the looming categorised climb.
Between the 20km mark and the bottom of the climb the peloton had managed to scale back their deficit to solely 10 seconds.
With an enormous 13.2km at a mean gradient of 5.2% forward of them, the class 1 climb utterly flipped the race on its head as Slock was initially dropped by the breakaway earlier than they had been finally caught by the peloton.
With Juan Ayuso (Emirates XRG) and David Gaudu (Groupama–FDJ) already dropped on the climb, the race for the GC intensified, as all of the contenders started to up the tempo, with Lidl-Trek riders Carlos Verona, Andrea Bagioli and Giulio Ciccone main the cost.
5 Visma-Lease a Bike riders, with Vingegaard, upped the tempo additional and moved clear, with Almeida main the seven rider chase group involving Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers), Pidcock, Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike), Matthew Riccitello (Israel–Premier Tech), Giulio Pellizzari and Jai Hindley (Pink Bull–Bora–Hansgrohe) and Felix Gall (Decathlon–AG2R La Mondiale).
And the drama was not completed there, because the fatigue from not solely the lengthy day but in addition the lengthy week began to set in, Vingegaard managed to drop Ciccone on the entrance, with Almeida, Pidcock and Gall happening as a trio, swiftly overtaking Ciccone within the course of.
With 3km to go, Vingegaard held a 32-second lead over the charging Pidcock and Almeida, however extra importantly, the chief held a two-minute benefit over the pink jersey.
Vingegaard rode with willpower to regain the final classification lead for the third time this Vuelta and to enter the remainder day carrying the maillot rojo.
Vingegaard rode to his third stage win in solo style, forward of Pidcock, who impressively pipped Almeida on the road.
Consequence: Vuelta a España 2025 stage 9: Alfaro › Valdezcaray (195.5km)
1. Jonas Vingegaard (Den) Visma-Lease a Bike in 04:32:10
2. Tom Pidcock (Gbr) Q36.5 Professional Biking, +24s
3. João Almeida (Por) Emirates-XRG, on the similar time
4. Felix Gall (Aut) Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale, +1:02
5. Raul García (Spa) ARKEA-B&B HOTELS, +01:46
6. Marc Soler (Spa) Emirates-XRG
7. Giulio Ciccone (Ita) Lidl-Trek
8. Markel Beloki (Spa) EF Schooling-EasyPost
9. Jai Hindley (Aus) Pink Bull-BORA-hansgrohe
10. Lorenzo Fortunato (Ita) XDS Astana Staff, all on the similar time
Basic classification after stage 9
1. Torstein Træen (Nor) Bahrain Victorious, in 33:35:46
2. Jonas Vingegaard (Den) Visma-Lease a Bike, +37s
3. João Almeida (Por) UAE Staff Emirates-XRG, +1:15
4. Tom Pidcock (Gbr) Q36.5 Professional Biking, +1:35
5. Felix Gall (Aut) Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale, +2:14
6. Giulio Ciccone (Ita) Lidl-Trek, +2:42
7. Lorenzo Fortunato (Ita) XDS Astana, +2:47
8. Matteo Jorgenson (USA) Visma-Lease a Bike, +2:49
9. Jai Hindley (Aus) Pink Bull-Bora-hansgrohe, +2:53
10. Giulio Pellizzari (Ita) Pink Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, at similar time
Discover Extra
