The 9th stage of the Vuelta a España had a dramatic conclusion due to heavy rain, which turned the finish into a muddy mess. This forced the organizers to take extraordinary measures to ensure the smooth progress of the stage’s finale. As a result, the official timing was taken 2 kilometers before the finish line.
The favorites gave it their all up to that point: Primož Roglič crossed the ‘line’ with a lead over Remco Evenepoel, Jonas Vingegaard, and Juan Ayuso, but the organization did not consider this as a time gap that would result in a time loss.
João Almeida and Aleksandr Vlasov attacked from the group of favorites on the final climb. They joined forces and passed the 2-kilometer mark 3 minutes and 13 seconds behind the stage winner, Lennard Kämna, where the times were recorded. Behind them, Roglič chose to attack on a steep section. He followed five seconds behind Almeida and Vlasov and created a gap for the others.
Enric Mas, Vingegaard, Evenepoel, and Ayuso were two seconds behind Roglič.
Later in the evening, upon reviewing the footage, the race officials decided to place Roglič, Mas, Vingegaard, Evenepoel, and Ayuso with the same time. As a result, there was no time gain for the Slovenian from Jumbo-Visma in relation to the others.
Here’s how the time differences among the key cyclists looked:
João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates)
Aleksandr Vlasov (BORA-Hansgrohe)
Times relative to João Almeida and Aleksandr Vlasov:
Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) 5 sec
Enric Mas (Movistar Team) 5 sec
Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) 5 sec
Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step) 5 sec
Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates) 5 sec
Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates) 14 sec
Sepp Kuss (Jumbo-Visma) 14 sec
Mikel Landa (Bahrain Victorious) 14 sec
Lenny Martinez (Groupama-FDJ) 16 sec
Cian Uijtdebroeks (BORA-Hansgrohe) 16 sec