Jonas Vingegaard, the two-time Tour de France champion, won stage nine of the Vuelta a España with a solo attack on the final climb to Valdezcaray on Sunday. The Danish rider from Visma-Lease a Bike dominated the 13.2km category one ascent at the end of the 195.5km stage from Alfaro, finishing 24 seconds ahead of Tom Pidcock and João Almeida.
Vingegaard, who overcame a mechanical problem earlier in the stage, credited his team for setting the pace on the decisive climb. “I felt great today, and I felt amazing on the final climb. I asked them to accelerate, and they did a great job. It was fantastic teamwork,” he said.
The stage victory cut Vingegaard's deficit to the overall leader, Torstein Træen of Norway, to 37 seconds. Træen, who dropped back during the climb, launched a late attack in the final three kilometres to finish one minute 46 seconds behind Vingegaard, retaining the red jersey.
Earlier in the stage, a breakaway group of Michel Hessmann, Liam Slock, Michal Kwiatkowski, Archie Ryan and Kevin Vermaerke built a two-minute gap around the 70km mark. Heavy rain fell about 120km into the stage, and the peloton gradually reeled in the leaders, catching them with 30km to go.
On the final climb, Lidl-Trek riders Carlos Verona and Andrea Bagioli tried to set up Giulio Ciccone, but Vingegaard stayed with them before launching his winning move with 11km remaining. Ciccone faded, while Pidcock and Almeida finished second and third.
In the general classification, Almeida sits third, one minute 15 seconds behind Træen, with Pidcock fourth, 20 seconds further back. Mads Pedersen of Lidl-Trek retains the green jersey as leader of the points classification. The race resumes on Wednesday after a rest day with a 175.3km stage from Arguedas to El Ferial Larra Belagua.
