photo credits @ La Vuelta
Lennard Kämna (Bora-Hansgrohe) triumphed in stage 9 of the Vuelta a España today, soloing to victory atop the Collado de la Cruz de Caravaca, after the German rider jettisoned what remained of the day’s 8-man breakaway group with a few kilometers to go.
Meanwhile, Matteo Sobrero (Jayco-AlUla) and Chris Hamilton (dsm-firmenich) rounded out the podium, finishing some 13-seconds down on Kämna.
Back in the peloton, attacks came from João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) and Aleksandr Vlasov (Bora-Hansgrohe), while Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma) pushed on as well.
Almeida and Vlasov would later cross the finish 3:11 in arrears Kämna, followed by Roglič a further 5-seconds back, while Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep), Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates), Enric Mas (Movistar), Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma), and the red jersey of Sepp Kuss (Jumbo-Visma) came in at 3:25 down.
Race Highlights
Jumbo Visma decided to take advantage of the heavy winds that inundated today’s’ 184.5 kilometer stage from Cartagena to Caravaca de la Cruz, splitting the peloton into echelons. All but Robert Gesink made the front group, with only Remco Evenepoel and Mattia Cattaneo (Soudal Quick-Step), Aleksandr Vlasov, Nico Denz and Emanuel Buchmann of Bora-Hansgrohe able to follow. That left UAE Emirates, Groupama FDJ, Movistar and Bahrain Victorious with a job to do.
For a while it looked as if the task might be beyond them, as the lead group extended its advantage to almost a minute before being brought back down to 23 seconds at the foot of the first climb – the Puerto Casas de la Marina la Perdiz.
The first two groups on the road eventually came back together on the climb, which inspired an entirely new flurry of attacks out of the bunch. Five riders went clear, and a couple more chased on from behind, allowing a more ordinary breakaway to settle and form. The first hour of the race saw 52 kilometers covered.
With none of the front eight riders a challenge to the overall, they were able to extend their advantage beyond eight minutes – an amount that rendered one of them all but certain to take the stage victory. That was until crosswinds began to blow again, causing splits to open up again in the bunch, and the breakaway’s lead to be halved over just 20km.
The split in the peloton did become whole again, however, allowing a more sedate pace of the peloton to be restored and the breakaway’s nerves to stop jangling. Their lead was able to extend once more and the escapees could begin to think about how they would best play the difficult final ascent.
The Collado de la Cruz de Caravaca was another climb that had never before been featured in the Vuelta, a narrow, barely paved road, that spanned 8.2 kilometers with an average gradient 5.5% that contained steep ramps that kicked into the teens.
Kämna was a strong favorite from the front group. However, it was Hamilton who started the fireworks early on, causing Ruben Fernandez (Cofidis), Dani Navarro (Burgos-BH) and Jon Barrenetxea (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) to fall behind.
With 5 kilometers to go Kämna gradually rode clear of his rivals, while Sobrero did his best to try and stay on terms, the Italian faded towards the finish, followed by Hamilton.
Going into the second week, all the jerseys stayed on the same shoulders: Sepp Kuss (Jumbo Visma) retains the red; Kaden Groves (Alpecin Deceuninck) carries a commanding lead in the points competition; Eduardo Sepulveda (Lotto-Dstny) is still the King of the Mountains; Lenny Martinez (Groupama-FDJ) is the best young rider.
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