Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) attacked near the base of the final 13km climb and soloed to victory at the Valdezcaray ski station and drew closer to the red jersey on stage 9 of the Vuelta a España
Tom Pidcock (Q36.5) took second place when he outsprinted João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) after a valiant chase. The pair were 24 seconds behind the Dane, but managed to make significant gains on their general classification rivals.
Vingegaard attacked just 2km into the climb after after being led out by Matteo Jorgenson. Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) was initially able to hold his wheel, but Vingegaard then went solo with 10km still to climb, and he never looked back since then.
Red jersey Torstein Træen (Bahrain Victorious) barely managed on to the race lead as he finished in a group 1:50 down on Vingegaard.
“I felt super great today and then on the last climb I told my team to speed up. Super team work and super happy that I could finish it off,” stage winner Jonas Vingegaard said shortly after the stage finish.
“Maybe I didn’t do my homework well enough, because I was surprised to discover ten kilometers remained after I attacked. I was looking for the stage win and it was also my ambition to take seconds on my main competitors in the general classification,” Vingegaard added.
Vingegaard is now 37 seconds behind the GC leader, while Joao Almeida is 01:15 minutes behind the leader. Tom Pidcock is fourth, Felix Gall fifth, and Giulio Ciccone now sixth. Egan Bernal dropped to eleventh and Ben O’Connor is fifteenth.
Monday will be the first rest day of this year’s Vuelta a Espana. Tuesday’s stage 10 of Vuelta a Espana 2025 will continue in the mountains as the riders will set out on a 175.3-kilometer ride from Parque de la Naturaleza Sendaviva to El Ferial Larra Belagua.
More to follow....