VALDEZCARAY: Twi­ce Tour de France champion Jonas Vingegaard won stage nine of the Vuelta a Espana with a solo attack on the climactic climb to Valdezcaray on Sunday, shaving nearly two minutes off the gap to overall leader Torstein Traeen, who is ahead by 37 seconds.

Visma-Lease a Bike’s Vingegaard dominated the 13.2km category one climb at the end of the 195.5km ride from Alfaro to the Valdezcaray ski resort and although Tom Pidcock and Joao Almeida tried to chase, they finished 24 seconds off the pace.

Vingegaard, who had a mechanical issue during the stage but caught up with the peloton again with 75km to go, said he knew it was his day when he put his team at the front for the final 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, and I’m very happy that I was able to finish it off,” the 28-year-old Dane said.

Norwegian Traeen (Bahrain Victorious), who had fallen behind the peloton during the climb, launched a late attack in the final three kilometres to finish one minute, 46 seconds behind Vingegaard, retaining the red jersey.

The stage saw several failed attempts to break away early on until Michel Hessmann, Liam Slock, Michal Kwiatkowski, Archie Ryan and Kevin Vermaerke formed a leading group, building a two-minute gap around the 70km mark.

The riders faced heavy rain about 120km into the stage, and the peloton maintained the gap to the leaders before rapidly closing distance with the breakaway five in the final 30km.

Lidl-Trek riders Carlos Verona and Andrea Bagioli attempted to lead out their team-mate Giulio Ciccone early on the climb, but Vingegaard stayed on their heels before launching an attack with 11km to go.

Italy’s Ciccone could not keep up the chase, while Briton Pidcock (Q36.5) and Portugal’s Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) charged ahead to finish on the podium.

Almeida sits third in the general classification, one minute and 15 seconds behind Traeen. Pidcock is fourth, 20 seconds behind Almeida.

Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) remained at the top of the points classification, retaining the green jersey.

Monday is a rest day for the riders before a largely flat stage 10 on Tuesday, which stretches 175 kilometres from Sendaviva natural park to the ski resort in Larra-Belagua..

Published in Dawn, September 1st, 2025