As it happened: GC race ignites on aggressive summit finish to Valdezcaray on stage 9 of the Vuelta a España

Welcome!

Hello and welcome to Cyclingnews' live coverage of stage 9 of the Vuelta a España! We'll be keeping you across everything that happens during the stage.

On the cards today is another summit finish.

Climbing up to the ski station at Valdezcaray, the final ascent is 13.3km long with an average 5.2% gradient.

Could this be the end of Torstein Træen's time in red? With the nine riders behind him only separated by a handful of seconds, we're certainly expecting some kind of GC action today.

Here's a reminder of what happened yesterday, if you missed it:

Vuelta a España stage 8: Jasper Philipsen claims second stage victory in chaotic sprint

It wasn't without drama, of course...

'It's painful' – Narrow loss followed by sprint relegation brings double heartbreak for teary Elia Viviani at Vuelta a España

For more about today’s parcours and its finish at Valdezcaray, be sure to read our stage preview.

Vuelta a España 2025 stage 9 preview - Summit finish favours breakaway

The riders are on the move now, making their way through the neutralised zone.

While the stage finishes with a long category one climb, the roads before it are undulating rather than hilly, meaning non-climbers could get into the day’s break.

In fact, with the exception of the finish, there isn’t a single categorised climb all day.

The scene at the start.

We're just a few minutes away from the official start. Some riders will be bracing themselves to make an early move, in what could be a competitive battle to get into the day's break.

And they're off!

OFFICIAL START

It’s a warm day out there, with the temperature at 28 degrees.

No sign yet of a break going clear. It’s been a surprisingly subdued start so far.

Now we have some action, with some riders trying to go clear, but they've been brought back.

The race is still all together.

190KM TO GO

Still no break has formed. The road is going uphill, so the terrain is conducive to moves going away, but none have managed to so far.

Three riders have a small gap, but the peloton is bearing down on them.

We now have 4 riders up the road - Kung, Labrosse, Segaert and Slot. They've only got a lead of about 10 seconds though.

180KM TO GO

Three more riders are chasing behind trying to join them.

All those attackers are bruoght back, and the race is as you were.

Still the race remains together, no attacks succeeding in going clear since that 4man move.

They've been racing for over half an hour, but still no sign of a break forming.

170KM TO GO

While we wait for a break to form, here’s what Matteo Jorgenson had to say about his Visma-Lease a Bike’s strategy at this Vuelta, and how they are waiting until the second and third weeks to strike.

'It's just a safer play' - Matteo Jorgenson dampens expectations of fireworks by Visma-Lease a Bike before second half of Vuelta a España

The riders are passing through the feed zone, the race still not having settled down.

A couple of riders have a bit of a gap - can they succeed where others have failed?

160KM TO GO

No, they won’t - they’ve been brought back by the peloton.

Here’s the group featuring Stefan Küng that tried to go clear earlier.

More moves coming thick and fast, but nobody can make anything stick.

For an idea of what it’s been like during this first hour of racing, here’s one of the many attempted moves, the pain on the riders’ faces illustrating just how relentless a start it’s been as attackers keep trying, and failing, to form a break.

The riders have spent most of the day going gradually uphill, and have just reached what is the highest point of the stage prior to the final climb. They will now descend for a little while.

150KM TO GO

Kwiatkowski and Ryan have a gap of a few seconds.

That duo’s lead is growing - it’s now up to 25 seconds.

More riders were chasing behind but are now back in the peloton.

Slock and Hessmann have set off in pursuit of the two leaders.

Kwiatkowski and Ryan lead Hessmann and Slock by 10 seconds, and the peloton by 15 seconds. That's something of a gap, but it could all come back together yet again soon.

140KM TO GO

The two chasers have caught the two leaders, but the peloton are right behind them.

Kevin Vermaerke has attacked out of the peloton in an attempt to bridge up to the leaders.

Vermaerke has made the juncture.

This five-man group is giving it a good shot, but still can’t get much of a lead. Right now, they’re being kept at 20 seconds.

130KM TO GO

The five leaders are starting to make some gains. They’ve grown their lead to over 30 seconds.

You can only just about make out the peloton in the background, as the break builds it's lead.

That’s it, the elastic has snapped - the break’s lead is up to over a minute and a half.

At long last, we have our break of the day.

Or do we? Some riders aren’t content to give up the ghost yet - Mads Pedersen and Sander De Pestel have attacked out of the peloton.

That pair is on a hiding to nothing, however, and have been brought back.

The break's lead hasn't grown any more in recent kilometers, plateauing at 1:45.

120KM TO GO

The leaders have managed to grow their advantage a little more, to 2 minutes, but the peloton hasn’t sat up.

Jonas Vingegaard was held up briefly by a mechanical, but is back in the bunch now.

The five men up the road.

The break aren't being given much leeway, with Lidl-Trek leading the peloton to keep them at 1:45.

110KM TO GO

Easily the most decorated rider in the break is Michał Kwiatkowski. On the Pole’s palmares are Tour de France stages, classic victories, and the World Championships - but never a stage at the Vuelta. He’s spent much of this race in a domestique role for sprinter Ben Turner, but has been given the freedom to chase personal success today.

Pedersen and De Pestel were all smiles earlier despite not bridging up to the break.

Archie Ryan is an exciting name to see in the break. The 23-year-old has looked good on his Grand Tour debut, also getting into the break on stage 6 when he finished 9th, and has decent climbing credentials for the finish.

Juan Ayuso did not get into the break despite being active earlier, but is in the news as rumours about him transferring to a new team continue to circulate.

Rumours of Juan Ayuso's possible early exit from UAE Team Emirates-XRG re-emerge at Vuelta a España

The break's lead has increased, up to 2:30. They will want to keep it growing to have a chance of winning the stage.

90KM TO GO

Lidl-Trek are leading the peloton, with their ever-dependable workhorse Amanuel Ghebreigzabhier. This final climb looks ideal for their man Giulio Ciccone.

Q36.5 have also put a man at the front of the peloton to help chase. Their leader Tom Pidcock is someone who would also be a favourite in the event of a sprint between a small group of favourites at the top of the summit finish.

Nickolas Zukowsky is the Q36.5 rider helping with the chase, assisting Lidl’s pair of Ghebreigzabhier and Hoole.

The work from Q36.5 and Lidl-Trek has kept the five leaders to 2:35.

80KM TO GO

The highest ranked rider on GC in the break is Kevin Vermaerke, down in 40th at 17:29. Although a decent climber, he might have been more of a contender for the stage win on a punchier day.

Dark clouds are looming on the horizon. The heavens could open at some point during the day.

The riders are currently ascending some steep roads on yet another undulation, an example of how this stage is more difficult than the official recognition of just the one categorised climb suggests.

The gap's remained the same for a while, at around 2:30.

70KM TO GO

The heavens have indeed opened, and it’s raining heavily on the riders.

Almost as quickly as it began, the rain has now stopped. That was a heavy, but thankfully brief, shower.

Michel Hessmann is representing Movistar in the break. The team have endured a difficult home Grand Tour so far, without a GC candidate and not getting close to a stage win yet. Hessmann will try to put that right today.

The peloton's brought the break a little closer, to 2:10. The break's chances are looking slim.

60KM TO GO

Despite his attempts to get into the break earlier, this was never going to be a day for Mads Pedersen, who has, against expectations, gone winless so far at the Vuelta. He remains hopeful, though, and is eying up opportunities in the stages to come.

'All we can do is look ahead' – Mads Pedersen winless but still on the hunt at Vuelta a España

The gap remains steady, at just under two minutes.

50KM TO GO

It might not be raining at the moment, but looking at the sky suggests more showers are to come. More threatening clouds are looming over the peloton.

Though it has ceased, the rain has left the roads looking dangerously wet. The riders will have to be careful, although there’s no big descents to have to navigate today.

Mechanical for Sepp Kuss, who is making his way back into the peloton.

The pace being set by Lidl and Q36.5 is quick enough to string the peloton out in one long line.

The gap between the leaders and peloton is coming down slowly but surely. It's not down to 1:45.

40KM TO GO

Kuss is back in the peloton after his mechanical.

There's an intermedaite sprint coming up in about 5km. There are only points on offer for the first five riders, so are set to be all taken by the break with no sprint in the peloton.

That's bad for Mads Pedersen, who only has a slender lead in the points classification, and could come under threat from the GC men now there are lots of mountainous stages coming up.

The peloton at the start of the day, where there were pro-Palestine protests.

David Gaudu has had a mechanical. Despite looking great earlier in the Vuelta, and winning the stage, he was dumped out of GC contention on the summit finish two days ago, and now lies in 41st at 19:15.

The gap's come down some more, to 1:15. The stage is surely going to someone in the peloton.

30KM TO GO

The break has made it to the intermediate sprint, however, where Slock takes the top points uncontested.

We’re nearing the final climb, the Valdezcaray ski station, at the top of which this stage will finish. It’s a long effort, lasting 13.2km, but with an average gradient of only 5.2%, and levels off towards the end. Given the way the previous harder finishes have been raced, we shouldn't expect too many GC fireworks, but it will be a fight and time could be won and lost.

The break's lead has dipped to below a minute.

20KM TO GO

The break hasn't given up yet, and should at least start the climb still at the front of the race.

There's a crash in the peloton, towards the front. Victor Guernalec went down, but thankfully looks OK, and everyone managed to swerve around him.

Slock has been dropped by the other 4 escapees on the foothills of the mountain.

The peloton can see the break now, just 10 seconds ahead of them.

Juan Ayuso has been dropped out of the peloton. As he did yesterday, the Spaniard is trying to lose time to give himself more leeway to get into future breakaways. Unclear how his teammate and GC leader Almeida thinks about that.

The catch is about to be made, just as they start the climb.

VALDEZCARAY

Gaudu is also already dropped, another who's GC aims are over.

That's it, the catch is made. A fine effort from the riders in the break, but the odds were always against them.

It's still Lidl-Trek who lead the peloton, though minus Mads Pedersen, who has been dropped.

A line of three Lidl riders lead - Verona, Bagioli and Ciccone.

After them is a line of about 5 Visma riders, among them Jonas Vingegaard.

Visma have made a move! Jorgenson ups the pace suddenly.

Jorgenson's gone clear, with only Vingegaard and Ciccone on his wheel.

And now the Dane makes his move! Ciccone is sticking to his wheel though.

VINGEGAARD ATTACKS

Where did that come from? So much for waiting for the second and third weeks, as the team insisted the plan was.

UAE are leading the chase in the peloton behind, with Vine leading.

Now Almeida takes over, and ups the pace.

Almeida has 7 riders with him - Bernal, Pidcock, Jorgenson, Riccitello, Pellizzari, Gall and Hindley

Vingegaard goes again, and this time drops Ciccone!

10KM TO GO

The Almeida-led chase is 10 seconds behind Vingegaard, with Ciccone somewhere in between.

Behind, Torstein Træen's red jersey is in peril - he's 39 seconds behind Vingegaard.

Almeida’s pace is dropping some of the riders who were initially able to follow. Only Pidcock and Gall are still with him.

Ciccone appears to have been both caught and dropped by Almeida, Gall and Pidcock.

All of Lidl's work throughout the day appears to have been in vain.

Almeida's pace claims another victim, as Gall is dropped.

Torstein Træen is isolated, but is actually in a group being paced by Kuss and another Visma rider - whose teammate, Vingegaard, is the man who stands to take the red jersey from him.

Now Træen is being left to do the pace-setting. He's 1:18 behind Vingegaard - over half of his lead on GC.

Træen is closing in on the group ahead, which contains Ciccone, Jorgenson, Hindley and some other GC contenders.

Pidcock is now assisting Almeida in the chase, and not just hanging on. They're 25 seconds behind Vingegaard, and a minute ahead of the Træen group.

Pidcock might be taking turns, but it's not enough to keep Almeida happy. The Portuguese rider is remonstrating with him.

Vingegaard has a healthy lead of 25 seconds over the two chasers with 4.5km left to ride, but will that be enough once the gradient eases off towards the top?

This is some ride by Pidcock to keep up with Almeida's pace. Possibly the climbing performance of his career.

Kuss and Tulett are leading the Træen group again. It seems they're happy for him to keep the red jersey.

The group 10 seconds ahead of Træen and a minute behind Pidcock and Almeida is a big one. Ciccone, Hindley, Jorgenson, O'Connor, Bernal, Riccitello, Soler and Pellizzari are some of the riders in it.

Just 2km left for Vingegaard, and his gap is getting bigger, now up to 30 seconds. He should be good for the stage win.

Fortunato, Beloki, López and Raúl García Pierna are also in the Ciccone group.

And from that group, García Pierna attacks.

1km to go for Vingegaard, who's 30 seconds up on Almeida and Pidcock, and almost 2 minutes up on the Ciccone group.

We now wait to see how much time he's gained.

VINGEGAARD WINS

Pidcock takes 2nd place ahead of Almeida, 25 seconds behind Vingegaard. They closed some of the gap in that final kilometre.

Gall takes 4th place, 1:01 behind.

García Pierna is 5th, at 1:45.

And just behind him just a few second later comes a large group of GC men - including Torstein Træen. His red jersey is safe.

Visma-Lease a Bike and Vingegaard caught us all, and the riders, off guard there! That attack wasn’t predicted after they downplayed their ambitions in previous days, saying they intended to ride conservatively; instead, Vingegaard has taken a huge chunk of time over his rivals, and is now firmly in pole position for red.

The only riders to lose less than a minute to Vingegaard were Almeida and Pidcock.

That's a big moment for Pidcock at this Vuelta. Many have dismissed his GC ambitions, saying he should target stages instead as his ceiling as a GC rider is limited. Based on today, however, he's a front-runner for the podium.

Less surprising was Almeida’s performance. He powered up the climb in his usual diesel style, and though he couldn’t follow the initial move from Vingegaard, a loss of only 24 seconds isn’t bad. He remains very much in contention for the red jersey.

Vingegaard, Almeida and Pidcock are now 2nd, 3rd and 4th on GC - but Torstein Træen still leads. He’ll go into the rest day with a 37 second lead, having dug deep to limit his losses on the final climb.

He did so with some help from his apparent rival team Visma-Lease a Bike. Maybe they wanted to help the Norwegian keep the red jersey so they wouldn’t have to defend it for Vingegaard in the coming days?

Vingegaard says in the post-race interview that the attack from himself and his teammates were not premeditated, but spontaneous, due to feeling he had very strong legs.

Update on internal tensions at UAE Team Emirates - Almeida doesn’t sound happy with the way he was supported today! He says he was ‘missing’ his teammates, and laments how ‘nobody was with [him] in the end’. He can't have been happy with the way Ayuso sat up at the bottom of the climb.

This was the moment Vingegaard launched his attack, having been set up by Jorgenson. Ciccone was initially able to follow, but must have gone too deep as later faded into the larger chase group behind.

Almeida and Pidcock, riding to 3rd and 2nd place.

Thanks for joining us today, on a stage in which Jonas Vingegaard stamped his authority on the race.

He’s clearly the man to beat, but there’s plenty of fight in João Almeida and Tom Pidcock to take him on. It’s a rest day tomorrow, but we’ll be back again with live coverage on Tuesday for stage 10.