2018 Vuelta a Espana - Stage 9

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On one of the toughest stages we have seen so far this year in the Vuelta, US rider Ben King of Dimension Data took the stage 9 win with his second stage victory for this years Vuelta a Espana, in the grueling 200km ride from Talavera de la Reina to La Covatilla. King was part of a 11 rider break away but made a solo attack to take the victory ahead of Bauke Mollema of Trek-Segafredo. The big news of the day is the general classification, where Rudy Molard of Groupama-FDJ was unable to keep with the lead group and has lost the Red Jersey, handing it over to Simon Yates of Mitchelton-Scott.

Link to stage nine route map

The day started with Luis Angel Maté of Cofidis eager to lead a break and increase his points in the King of the Mountain classification and did so with another 10 other riders almost as soon as the stage started. The peloton held back and allowed the lead to extend to almost 4 minutes by the second climb of the day. After the second climb the riders had 60km of rolling terrain before their final climb of the day. With no real organization in the peloton, their lead extended to 10 minutes before the final climb.

With 30km to go Team Sky got to the front of the peloton and lifted the pace putting preassure on the lead group. They responded to leave only 7 riders in the lead group as they got to the final climb. With 20km to go King and Luis Mas of Caja Rural attacked and broke away from the lead group, getting to almost 90 seconds ahead. Although the rest of the group tried to keep up, king was able to keep his lead to over 15 seconds coming into the last 2km, with King finally taking the stage in a hard fought win.

Overall classification after stage Nine

Simon Yates of Mitchelton-Scott had started the day in fourth overall, but with a ninth place finish in today's stage, has given him the over all general classification lead and the Red Leaders Jersey. He only has a one second lead ahead of Alejandro Valverde with now Nairo Quintana in third both of Movistar Team. Unfortunately Rudy Molard is now back in 17th over all and more than 2 minutes off the lead.

1. Simon Yates (GBr) Mitchelton-Scott 36 hours 54 minutes 52 seconds
2. Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar Team at 1 seconds
3. Nairo Quintana (Col) Movistar Team at 14 seconds

Next Stage - Stage 10 From Salamanca to Bermillo de Sayago

The riders and teams have a well earned rest day after what would have been a tough stage today. The next stage is stage 10 and will be on Tuesday the 4th of September.

Link to stage ten route map

The first stage back from a rest day, stage 10 is a 177km ride from Salamanca, heading west towards the Portuguese border to Bermillo de Sayago. The course is flat but as riders will be riding through the northwestern plateaus of Spain, they will still be rider at about 800m above sea level for a majority of the ride.

the route passes through Salamanca, performing almost a 50km look through the surrounding towns, and then through to the Rover Tormes towards the Portuguese border and behind the Almendra Dam. At the 135km mark of the stage, riders will drop almost 400m as they cross the Tormes River before having to climb up to 800m again wuith a 4.9km climb at 5.3% average gradient. The final 20km into Bermillo de Sayago will be flat and will most likely be a sprint to the finish, but with what we've seen so far in this years Vuelta, anything could happen.

I'll also be having a break tomorrow from reporting the progress of the race, but will speak to you again when Stage 10 is run on Tuesday 4th of September

I'll be covering each stage of the Vuelta A Espana, giving a breakdown of each days stage, my previous post for @cyclefeed were the results of stage eight of this years Vuelta, so feel free to have a look:
https://steemit.com/cycling/@run.vince.run/2018-vuelta-a-espana-stage-8

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Please Note all maps are made by myself using Strava