João Almeida climbs to third on stage 9 of the Vuelta a España

João Almeida came over the line in third place on stage 9 of the Vuelta a España, with the UAE Team Emirates-XRG climber heading into the first rest day of the race in third overall. On the climb to Estación de Esquí de Valdezcaray, Almeida united with Tom Pidcock of Q36.5 Pro Cycling to limit their losses to the day’s winner, Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike).

The Danish rider attacked from the peloton on the lower slopes of the climb, prompting Giulio Ciccone of Lidl-Trek into a quick response. For a short while, the pair were alone off the front of the race, but Vingegaard’s infernal pace forced Ciccone to relent.

With 10km to go to the summit finish, Vingegaard went alone and would not be seen again.

Almeida, meanwhile, quickly saw that the remains of the favourites’ group did not have the firepower to muster a sufficient response. Once Jay Vine had done as much as he could to limit the gap, Almeida attacked from the group and sought to make an inroad into Vingegaard’s advantage.

Within a couple of kilometres, only Tom Pidcock could stick to the wheel of Almeida. As buckets of rain poured from the sky above, the pair came together and relayed for the final 7.5km of the climb. Following the initial accelerations of both Vingegaard and Almeida, the gap between the riders on the road remained between 20-30 seconds.

Across the line, Pidcock pipped Almeida to second, and with it, six bonus seconds, as the UAE Team Emirates-XRG rider was forced to settle for four bonus seconds. The gap on the road to Vingegaard was 24 seconds, which extends the Dane’s advantage as the de facto leader of the general classification.

After nine stages, the Vuelta will pause for its first rest day on Monday, with Almeida sitting third overall and 38 seconds behind the race favourite, Vingegaard. With most of the toughest stages still to come in this year’s race, the battle for the overall win of the Vuelta remains wide open.

Almeida: “[Vingegaard] got the factor of surprise, I think we were not expecting it but I was actually in a good position. They went really hard and in the end, I couldn’t really close the gap. It is what it is.

“I could see [the other riders around me] were on their limit, so they couldn’t do much.

“It was not so steep [when Vingegaard went clear], so on the wheel you save a lot, so I think I could have gone with him, but we’ll never know right.”

Vuelta a España stage 9 results

1. Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) 4:32:10

2. Tom Pidcock (Q36.5 Pro Cycling) +24″

3. João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) s.t

6. Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) +1:46

Vuelta a España general classification after stage 9

1. Torstein Træen (Bahrain Victorious) 33:35:46

2. Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) +37″

3. João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) +1:15