Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates) excelled on stage 9 of the Vuelta a Espana 2024 between Motril and Granada and sent a message to the classification riders with his superior stage win. Together with his team-mates Marc Soler and Jay Vine, the Brit entered the day's breakaway group and then capitalised on the preparatory work of his helpers. With 58 kilometres to go, Adam Yates left Jay Vine's back wheel and began his solo ride to the stage win. The classification riders were unable to parry the attack of the Briton, who is now back in the fight for the red jersey.
Lipowitz takes over White
28 kilometres before the finish, on the last of the day's three difficult climbs, the group of favourites stepped up the pace. Enric Mas (Movistar) impressed, leaving his rivals Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) and Ben O'Connor (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) behind and opening up a clear lead of over a minute for the time being. While Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain-Victorious) and Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) dropped out of the group of favourites, Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-Bora-Hangrohe) held his own. With a strong performance on the final descent, he helped his captain Roglic to catch up with Enric Mas again. This meant that Enric Mas, Primoz Roglic, Ben O'Connor and Florian Lipowitz crossed the finish line at the same time. While Roglic defended second place against Mas, Lipowitz took over the white jersey from Tiberi.
Vuelta a Espana 2024 - Results - the top 10 of stage 9
- Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates) 4:42:28
- Richard Carapaz (EF Education EasyPost) +1:39
- Ben O'Connor (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) +3:45
- Mikel Landa (Soudal - Quick Step) +3:45
- Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) +3:45
- Pavel Sivakov (UAE Team Emirates) +3:45
- Carlos Rodriguez (Ineos Grenadiers) +3:45
- Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) +3:45
- David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) +3:45
- Enric Mas (Movistar) +3:45
The current standings in the overall standings of the Vuelta 2024
- Ben O'Connor (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) 36:09:36
- Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) +3:53
- Richard Carapaz (EF Education EasyPost) +4:32
- Enric Mas (Movistar) +4:35
- Mikel Landa (Soudal - Quick Step) +5:17
- Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) +5:29
- Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates) +5:30
- Felix Gall (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) +5:30
- Carlos Rodriguez (Ineos Grenadiers) +6:00
- David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) +6:32
How the 9th stage of the Vuelta a Espana 2024 went
As soon as the race began, the battle for the day's leading group began. Wout van Aert (Visma | Lease a Bike) and Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ), among others, showed particular commitment. Together with five other riders, they initially managed to break away from the peloton. As a result, the peloton broke up again - 21 riders joined the escapees in the breakaway. David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ), Marc Soler, Adam Yates (both UAE Team Emirates) and Felix Engelhardt (Team Jayco-AlUla) were among the 26 riders in the breakaway group.
UAE controls the breakaway group
The peloton gave the large breakaway group a maximum lead of around 5:30 minutes before the lead was reduced again before the first of three climbs. At the Puerto de el Purche, Marc Soler set the pace for his team-mates Adam Yates and Jay Vine in the leading group, forcing numerous riders to break away. Quinten Hermans (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Kaper Asgreen (Soudal - Quick Step), Chris Harper (Team Jayco-AlUla) and Wout van Aert, among others, dropped out of the group of leaders. Meanwhile in the peloton, the Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe team was responsible for the chase on the climbs.
Carapaz attacked
While David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) took the mountain points on the first climb, there were only eight riders left in what was once a lead group of over 20 riders. Earlier, Richard Carapaz (EF Education EasyPost) had launched an attack out of the peloton. The veteran tried to catch up with the front of the race with a show of strength.
Yates with race-deciding acceleration
On the second climb of the day, the Alto de Hazallanas, Jay Vine, Adam Yates and David Gaudu broke away from the leading group. With 58 kilometres to go, it was Adam Yates who launched an attack and rode solo to the front. Meanwhile, Carapaz was still trying to close the gap to the front, but was increasingly biting his teeth out. The Briton Yates took the 1st category mountain classification and at this point had a lead of over 5:30 minutes on the Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe-led peloton, which had already thinned out to around 20 riders.
The third and final climb was again over the Alto de Hazallanas. There, Carapaz pulled away from the competition early on and was now in second place in the race. However, he didn't really get any closer to Adam Yates. With a clear lead over the peloton, it was clear to both riders at this point that they would make a big leap in the overall classification.
Mas is not rewarded
28 kilometres before the finish, the classification riders attacked. Enric Mas broke away from the competition and was the third rider to cross the final mountain classification of the day. At this point, he had a lead of over a minute on Roglic and Co. Meanwhile, the Slovenian was back in a group with Ben O'Connor, Felix Gall (both Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), Pavel Sivakov (UAE Team Emirates), Mikel Landa (Soudal - Quick Step), Carlos Rodriguez (Ineos Grenadiers) and his team-mate Florian Lipowitz. Because Enric Mas made a mistake on the descent and almost crashed, he no longer took the full risk and was caught by the group around Roglic shortly before the finish.
Meanwhile, Adam Yates was no longer in contention for the stage win. The Briton didn't ride the last kilometres with full consistency and allowed Carapaz and the classification riders to get a little closer to him. With his mega solo, however, he remains the outstanding rider of the day and is now back in the fight for the overall classification.
