2018 Vuelta a España Stage 9 Results & Recap
Stage 9 of the 2018 Vuelta a España is in the books. The final results and standings are below, followed by our recap of how the race unfolded.
Race Recap
King wins on La Covatilla\nBy Clara Beard
For the second time this Vuelta a Espana, Ben King posted up for a victory salute atop the La Covatilla. The American attacked out of the breakaway during the business end of the stage and was never seen again. Bauke Mollema attempted to bridge, but couldn’t close the gap to the Dimension Data rider.
“I’m absolutely not the best climber of La Vuelta,” King said. “Tactics played a big part in my two victories. The first one it played out with guys like Pierre Rolland and Luis Angel Mate, and now with Bauke Mollema, who is a pure climber. I know my abilities for a final climb like this one so I had to gain time before reaching the bottom. I paid attention when Thomas De Gendt accelerated, and then I went with Lluis Mas because I’ve known him for quite some time and I know he’s a very strong rider. The climb was really hard, with some very steep sections, and I thought Mollema would come back. I couldn’t discard riders like De Gendt or Teuns either. I suffered a lot but I kept hoping and I made it.”
The climb was also the determining factor in the overall classification change, with Simon Yates (Mitchelton Scott) taking the red jersey, one second ahead of Alejandro Valverde.
“I wasn’t thinking of the red jersey today, that’s not something I expected,” Yates said. “I just followed the best riders up front, I was a couple of seconds behind and it’s a bit of surprise to be honest. But it’s a good surprise, obviously I’m happy with this jersey. I’m getting a bit used to this after the Giro. I knew my condition was good. It’s still very tight. We can see the riders who finished a bit ahead are Colombians, so they’re better used to the altitude, and we finished at 2,000m so I think that’s what made the difference. Now I’m going to enjoy the rest day and establish a plan with the team ahead of the next GC battle.”
The start of the Vuelta was a standard affair, with 11 escaping at the beginning of the race. Instigated by Luis Angel Mate (Cofidis), Dylan Teuns (BMC Racing Team), Thomas De Gendt (Lotto-Soudal), King, Reto Hollenstein (Katusha-Alpecin), Thomas Leezer (LottoNL-Jumbo), Mollema, Jesus Ezquerra (Burgos-BH), Lluis Mas (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA), Kenneth Vanbilsen (Cofidis) and Aritz Bagües (Euskadi-Murias).
The breakaway drew out a maximum of 10 minutes, but that shriveled slightly as the group made their way closer to the final climb. On La Covatilla, there was only King and Mollema remaining from the original break.
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