Enric Mas strengthens overall lead with mountaintop finish victory on stage 9 of the Vuelta a España

The day after Tadej Pogačar abandoned the Vuelta a España, stage 9 saw the battle for the general classification explode on the slopes of the Alto de Aitana, as Enric Mas dominated on the final climb to take the victory and strengthen his grip on the red jersey.

It marked the first stage win for Movistar at the Vuelta a España for five years, ending an embarrassing drought for the team in their home Grand Tour, whilst Mas also extended his overall lead to a minute and eighteen seconds over Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), who was unable to match the Spaniard’s attacks in the final kilometres.

In fact, the only rider able to follow Mas was Oscar Onley (Ineos Grenadiers), but the young British rider did not have enough to come around the red jersey in the final few hundred metres and was forced to settle for second place on the stage, with his strong showing him moving him up to fourth place in the overall standings.

It was a disappointing day for Felix Gall (Decathlon CMA CGM), as the Austrian rider’s team made massive efforts to whittle down the lead group on the lower slopes of the Alto de Aitana, but he found himself out of position when the decisive moves came and was ultimately unable to match the strength of some of his rivals, losing time to Mas, Onley and Roglič in the general classification.

With the first rest day coming on Monday, Mas now goes into the second week of the race with the red jersey firmly on his shoulders, as he has a lead of a minute and eighteen seconds over Roglič in the general classification, with a further twenty-one seconds to Gall in third place. Meanwhile, Onley continues to lead the youth classification by a large margin and is now forty-one seconds off the podium after moving up to fourth place overall.