Vuelta leader Traeen helps Vuelta.
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By Kevin Kempf
31.08.2025 | (RSN) – With a demonstration of power, Jonas Vingegaard (Visma – Lease A Bike) won the 9th stage of the Vuelta a Espana. After 195 kilometers between Alfaro and the Valdezcaray ski station at a height of 1541 meters, the 28-year-old Dane was 24 seconds earlier than the British Tom Pidcock (Q36.5) and Portuguese Joao Almeida (UAE-Emirates-XRG). The Austrian Felix Gall (Decathlon – AG2R) lost fourth 1:02 minutes to the winner.
The Spaniard Raul Garcia Pierna (Arkea – B&B Hotels) finished fifth by his compatriot Marc Soler (UAE – Emirates – XRG) with Giulio Ciccone (Lidl – Trek). Torstein Traeen (Bahrain Victorious) finished the race for six seconds behind, so the Norwegian defended the red jersey. Red Bull captain Jai Hindley became a stage at the same time before Traeen.
For Vingegaard, who had left empty on the tour, it was the second day victory on this tour of Spain. Eshe was ready, but he had offset himself. “Maybe I didn’t do my homework right, but I thought about my attack that we were already closer to the destination and I was a little surprised when I saw the 10-kilometer sign. But at that moment I already had a gap and had to go through it,” the winner in the Flash interview.
Vingegaard impressively finished his unintentionally long solo. Even in the flat final part, he lost no time to the competition. His teammates meanwhile caused astonishment. In the third group they made pace – with leader traeen on the rear wheel. A clever move, because this way you could keep the Norwegian in red and thus leave the work of the next few days to Bahrain Victorious, while Vingegaard himself took the competition and time for the competition for the overall victory.
“I was not targeting the red jersey, but rather on the stage victory and on winning the time to be honest. To be honest, I don’t know whether I have the red jersey or not,” said Vingegaard, who is still overall. Before the rest day, however, it is only 37 seconds behind the leader, but of which 38 in front of Almeida (+1: 15). The new fourth is Pidcock (+1: 35), followed in front of Gall (+2: 15), who, like the Brit, made a jump forward.
Heßmann shows that Pellizzari remains in white
The two Red Bull professionals Hindley and Giulio Pellizzari, who reached the goal in the Ciccone Group, missed this. Gall and Pidcock passed them in the overall ranking, the Australian is now a place before its simultaneous Italian teammate ninth (+2: 53). For this, Pellizzari defended the white jersey of the best young driver.
For the first time at the Vuelta, a German also drove into the spotlight. Michel Heßmann (Movistar) belonged to the outlier group of the day, which had been found late and who was never given much lead. At the foot of the final incline, the 24-year-old and his four companions were over. The best German was Ben Zwiehoff (Red Bull – Bora – Hansgrohe) in 43th place right in front of his team companion Nico Denz.
In the point ranking, Mads Pedersen (Lidl – Trek) is at the top. Jay Vine claimed the mountain jersey, his team UAE – Emirates – XRG remains ahead in the team classification.
So the 9th stage of the Vuelta a Espana ran:
On a course that granted outliers a real chance of winning, it was attacked at the start. However, nobody could solve themselves decisively on the first 46 kilometers. Then Michal Kwiatkowski (Ineos Grenadiers) and Archie Ryan (EF Education – Easypost) drove away from the field. They developed a minimal distance before Heßmann and Liam Slock (Lotto) opened eight kilometers later. Finally, shortly afterwards, Kevin Vermaerke (Picnic – Postnl) made the leap into the group.
However, the peloton did not want to make a big gap, so the quintet was held on the short leash with a maximum of 2:40 minutes. Slock won the intermediate sprint 29 kilometers before the finish line, but the pursuers were only 1:15 minutes behind.
The route profile of the 9th stage of the Vuelta a Espana: | Photo: organizer
The quintet was caught up in time for the beginning of the 13.3 km long climb. After two kilometers, Matteo Jorgenson (Visma – Lease A Bike) and his captain Vingegaard and Ciccone attacked the rear wheel. A kilometer later, the Italian could no longer hold the back wheel of the Danes and fell back into the group around Almeida. The Portuguese put his companions under pressure in the hunt for the leader that 9.4 kilometers before the finish could only follow Pidcock and Gall. The Austrian went overboard a short time later.
The positions in the race have now been determined, but not the time intervals – and they got bigger and bigger to the finish. Vingegaard passed the devil lobe 32 seconds before Almeida and Pidcock. He lost eight seconds on the last kilometer, but the top favorite still won the stage confidently in front of the Q36.5 captain, who won the sprint for second place in front of Almeida.
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