Tempers flare after Vuelta's stage nine sprint

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Robert Gesink (Rabobank) will surely be thinking of the Vuelta at the end of the month.(Image credit: Bert Geerts/dcp-bertgeerts@xs4all.nl)

As the battle intensifies for positions on the Vuelta a España's general classification, things got rough-and-tumble at the end of Monday's ninth stage. Alejandro Valverde sprinted to third place and into the leader's gold jersey, while behind him Cadel Evans and Robert Gesink battled it – quite literally.

However, the Australian had cooled down later. "In the final, a 'racing incident' with another rider in the last 200m stopped me trying to defend the leader's jersey," Evans wrote on his website. "Very frustrating on my part; I did let my competitor know about it, probably with a bit too much of my racing spirit and frustration. No hard feelings towards my colleague there, apologies will be in order."

Gesink shrugged the whole incident off. Replays of the incident seem to indicate that he held his line, as Valverde passed on his left and Evans attempted to move around on his right. Taking the narrower line, the angle of the barriers further restricted Evans as he attempted to pass. "Afterwards he was angry because he could not defend the jersey, but I couldn't do anything," Gesink said on his team's website.

Regardless of the incident Gesink moved up from fifth to third position after he caught the trio of Valverde, Evans and Basso on the descent to the finish in Xorret del Catí. The Rabobank rider had been dropped on the final climb of the Alto de Xorret del Catí, but fought back to gain time over general classification rivals Tom Danielson (Garmin-Slipstream) and Samuel Sánchez (Euskaltel-Euskadi).