After a disappointing first week of La Vuelta 24 for himself and UAE Team Emirates, Adam Yates delivered a stunning one-man-show on the eve of the first rest day. The British climber made it to a strong breakaway and proved to be the strongest over the iconic summits of the Sierra Nevada to win stage 9, his second Grand Tour victory after stage 1 of the Tour de France 2023, also set in Spain (Bilbao). Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) finished 2nd after an impressive attack as well, setting off from the GC group with almost 90 kilometres to go, to move up the 3rd position in the overall standings. Behind them, Enric Mas (Movistar) opened a gap of a minute on the final ascent but he was caught after a near miss on the downhill towards Granada.
On the eve of the first rest day, the peloton of La Vuelta 24 face one of the queen stages of this edition: three major ascents from Motril to Granada (178.2km), with a total elevation of 4,370m. These roads have often brought intense battles and the attackers seem intent to make the most of this brutal course.
An impressive break: Van Aert, Yates, Gaudu…
Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) sets off right. More attackers gradually join him at the front, until a group of 26 riders emerge with Jay Vine, Adam Yates, Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates), Oscar Rodriguez (Ineos Grenadiers), Kasper Asgreen (T-Rex Quick-Step), Patrick Konrad, Mathias Vacek (Lidl-Trek), Quinten Hermans, Xandro Meurisse (Alpecin-Decuninck), Jonas Gregaard (Lotto Dstny), David Gaudu, Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ), Darren Rafferty, James Shaw (EF Education-EasyPost), Nelson Oliveira (Movistar), Torstein Træen (Bahrain Victorious), Felix Engelhardt, Chris Harper (Jayco AlUla), Ruben Fernandez, Jesus Herrada, Jonathan Lastra (Cofidis), Pablo Castrillo, Pau Miquel (Kern Pharma).
Among them, David Gaudu (+6’30’’ in the overall standings), Adam Yates (+9’27’’) and Max Poole (+10’(8’’) are the main threats for La Roja.
Carapaz on the early move
They lead by 5 minutes when Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) sets off from the bunch, with 90 kilometres to go, at the bottom of the first climb of the day, the cat-1 Puerto de El Purche (8.9km, 7.6%). The race suddenly explodes.
At the front, Soler sets a brutal pace while Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe up the ante in the GC group. Gaudu goes first at the summit. Carapaz trails by 2’35’’ and the GC group by 5’.
All out on Hazallanas
The intensity keeps on increasing with the first of the two ascents up the cat-1 Alto de Hazallanas. Vine ups the ante on the ascent. Only Yates and Gaudu follow the Australian climber.
Yates goes solo in the last 5 kilometres of ascent, with 58.5km to go. Carapaz gets back to Gaudu and Vine, with Castrillo but Yates increases his lead and faces the last ascent of the day with a margin of 2’50’’ to his first chasers. The peloton trail by 6’40’’.
Mas attacks and almost crashes
While Yates keeps going with his one-man-show, Enric Mas (Movistar) attacks about 6km from the summit. Pavel Sivakov (UAE Team Emirates) is the only who tries to follow, unsuccessfully. By the summit, the Spaniard has opened a gap of 1 minute to the rest of the GC contenders.
Mas looks set to move up the standings but he narrowly survives a near miss on the downhill towards Granada. He is eventually caught with 1 kilometre to go, and the same goes with Gaudu. Carapaz (+1’39’’) is the only rider who stays ahead of the GC group (+3’45’’).
Into the rest day, Ben O’Connor (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) retains La Roja with a margin of 3’49’’ to Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe). Carapaz moves up the 3rd position (+4’32’’), just ahead of Mas (+4’35’’).
