Jonas Vingegaard claims third Vuelta a España victory to bring General Classification in touching distance on Stage 9

Jonas Vingegaard claimed his third Vuelta a España victory to bring the General Classification within touching distance on Stage 9.

The Visma-Lease a Bike rider, now trails in the General Classification by less than 40 seconds ahead of the rest day, with Torstein Træen (Bahrain Victorious) holding onto the red jersey.

Tom Pidcock (Q36.5) showed up and impressed in the race for the GC, coming in second on a mountain finish behind Vingegaard and pipped João Almeida (Emirates XRG) on the line, jumping eight places in the overall standings.

Stage 9 opened in Alfaro, marking its debut at the Vuelta as a stage departure, and hosted a tense final day before a rest day.

Tired legs and a tight general classification meant riders had a tentative and brutal 195.5km across rolling terrain ahead of them on their way to Valdezcaray.

Stage 9 followed another strong showing from Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin–Deceuninck), but ultimately left the general classification unchanged.

As a result, heading into the final day before the rest, there were two questions on everyone’s minds: will Vingegaard finish the week on a high with a stage win and regain the red jersey, or will Træen continue to lead the Grand Tour into next week?

HOW IT HAPPENED

Kicking off in Alfaro with an immediate 10km ascent, it was expected that the riders would capitalise and form a breakaway, and yet it was cagey.

It was not until 15km had passed that four riders, Stefan Küng (Groupama–FDJ), Jordan Labrosse (Decathlon–AG2R La Mondiale), Alec Segaert and Liam Slock (Lotto), moved up the road, but the effort failed soon enough.

This was the trend that plagued the first hour of racing, with all attempts to break free being reined in by the peloton with ease, despite the gradual and undulating terrain that opened the first 45km of racing.

And then, finally, the racing began with Michal Kwiatkowski (Ineos Grenadiers) and Archie Ryan (EF Education–EasyPost) breaking from the peloton ahead of the first (and only) major descent of the day, building a lead to over 25 seconds.

Not long after, Slock and Michel Hessmann (Movistar) set off, building an instant 15-second gap from the peloton, and pursuing the two leaders who led the chasers by 10 seconds.

Then Kevin Vermaerke (Picnic–PostNL) attacked from the peloton and made the juncture to the leaders, who held a 20-second lead.

After countless attempts to snap the elastic, the five-man group eventually broke free with 130km to go and built a lead of a minute and a half.

From there, the weather was the only thing to change from sunny to heavy rain, as their lead was unbridgeable for the next 90km.

The gap continued to grow through the 100km to go mark, to a substantial two minutes, and within the next 10km, it extended by another 40 seconds.

It was not until 50km mark that the peloton began to inject some serious pace ahead of the intermediate sprint.

With only points available for the first five riders, the peloton began to reel in the breakaway and with 40km remaining, they now trailed by one minute 40 seconds.

But it was too little too late for the peloton as they still lagged over a minute behind when Slock took the full 20 points uncontested.

There was no rest for the wicked either, with the approach of the final 20km, the breakaway had to hold off a charging peloton for as long as possible before the looming categorised climb.

Between the 20km mark and the base of the climb the peloton had managed to reduce their deficit to only 10 seconds.

With a massive 13.2km at an average gradient of 5.2% ahead of them, the category 1 climb completely flipped the race on its head as Slock was initially dropped by the breakaway before they were eventually caught by the peloton.

With Juan Ayuso (Emirates XRG) and David Gaudu (Groupama–FDJ) already dropped on the climb, the race for the GC intensified, as all the contenders began to up the pace, with Lidl-Trek riders Carlos Verona, Andrea Bagioli and Giulio Ciccone leading the charge.

Five Visma-Lease a Bike riders, with Vingegaard, upped the pace further and moved clear, with Almeida leading the seven rider chase group involving Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers), Pidcock, Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike), Matthew Riccitello (Israel–Premier Tech), Giulio Pellizzari and Jai Hindley (Red Bull–Bora–Hansgrohe) and Felix Gall (Decathlon–AG2R La Mondiale).

And the drama was not done there, as the fatigue from not only the long day but also the long week started to set in, Vingegaard managed to drop Ciccone at the front, with Almeida, Pidcock and Gall going on as a trio, swiftly overtaking Ciccone in the process.

With 3km to go, Vingegaard held a 32-second lead over the charging Pidcock and Almeida, but more importantly, the leader held a two-minute advantage over the red jersey.

Vingegaard rode with determination to regain the general classification lead for the third time this Vuelta and to enter the rest day wearing the maillot rojo.

Vingegaard rode to his third stage win in solo fashion, ahead of Pidcock, who impressively pipped Almeida on the line.

Result: Vuelta a España 2025 stage nine: Alfaro › Valdezcaray (195.5km)

1. Jonas Vingegaard (Den) Visma-Lease a Bike in 04:32:10
2. Tom Pidcock (Gbr) Q36.5 Pro Cycling, +24s
3. João Almeida (Por) Emirates-XRG, at the same time
4. Felix Gall (Aut) Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale, +1:02
5. Raul García (Spa) ARKEA-B&B HOTELS, +01:46
6. Marc Soler (Spa) Emirates-XRG
7. Giulio Ciccone (Ita) Lidl-Trek
8. Markel Beloki (Spa) EF Education-EasyPost
9. Jai Hindley (Aus) Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe
10. Lorenzo Fortunato (Ita) XDS Astana Team, all at the same time

General classification after stage nine

1. Torstein Træen (Nor) Bahrain Victorious, in 33:35:46
2. Jonas Vingegaard (Den) Visma-Lease a Bike, +37s
3. João Almeida (Por) UAE Team Emirates-XRG, +1:15
4. Tom Pidcock (Gbr) Q36.5 Pro Cycling, +1:35
5. Felix Gall (Aut) Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale, +2:14
6. Giulio Ciccone (Ita) Lidl-Trek, +2:42
7. Lorenzo Fortunato (Ita) XDS Astana, +2:47
8. Matteo Jorgenson (USA) Visma-Lease a Bike, +2:49
9. Jai Hindley (Aus) Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe, +2:53
10. Giulio Pellizzari (Ita) Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, at same time