Enric Mas out sprints Oscar Onley on Vuelta a España mountain stage, Sepp Kuss loser of the day

Enric Mas (Movista) won the tough ninth stage of the Vuelta a España on Sunday. The day after Tadej Pogacar's withdrawal, we saw that the other favorites in the race are very evenly matched, but that Mas was the best. Sepp Kuss lost 1 minute and 45 seconds. A grueling stage with nearly 5,000 meters of elevation gain separated the best from the rest.

And from the start, the race was on immediately. UAE Emirates-XRG switched gears after their leader dropped out and sent Pavel Sivakov straight into the line of fire. Alexey Lutsenko (NSN), Andreas Kron (Uno-X Mobility), Alastair Mackellar (EF Education-EasyPost), Fabian Weiss (Tudor), and Alessandro Romele (XDS Astana) followed, but the peloton did not immediately give them permission.

Eventually, a large group formed, consisting of Finn Fisher-Black (Red Bull-BORA-Hansgrohe), Pavel Sivakov (UAE Team Emirates), Embret Svestad-Bardseng (Netcompany INEOS), Ramses Debruyne (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Alexey Lutsenko (NSN), Valentin Paret-Peintre (Soudal Quick-Step), Andreas Kron (Uno-X Mobility), Alastair Mackellar (EF Education-EasyPost), Stefan Küng (Tudor Pro Cycling), Alessandro Romele (XDS Astana), and Urko Berrade (Equipo Kern Pharma).

Shortly afterwards, Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain Victorious), Bruno Armirail (Visma | Lease a Bike), Gijs Leemreize (Picnic PostNL) and Kevin Vermaerke (UAE) also joined the breakaway. Meanwhile, it turned out that the cup of bitterness for that latter team was not yet empty. Jay Vine was seen dropping back early on and Pablo Torres even abandoned the race, meaning the team had to continue with just six riders in the Vuelta a España.

Buitrago lost sight of a good general classification position early in the stage, but with the mountains jersey, the Colombian riding for Bahrain Victorious now had a new goal. On the first climbs, he consistently claimed the mountain points from the early breakaway, which gained a lead of around five minutes over Movistar.

With 50 kilometres to go, Decathlon CMA CGM took over from Movistar, whilst the action in the leading group was set in motion. Sivakov was the most active rider and, alongside Camprubi and Romele, moved to the front heading into the gruelling final climb of 21 kilometres at an average gradient of 5.8 per cent. The first two reached the foot of the climb with a 5.5-minute lead.

Decathlon CMA CGM made their intentions abundantly clear by immediately setting a very high pace and thus closing in on the leaders at a rapid pace. Gall’s attack then came at 6.5 kilometres, but Roglic, Onley, Skjelmose, Mas and the rock-solid Widar followed. At first, Kuss appeared to be the main casualty.

The first real attack then came from Carapaz, who went in search of Sivakov 5 kilometres from the finish. Behind him, there was a moment’s hesitation, until Onley sprang into action. This, in turn, drew a response from the red jersey wearer, Mas himself: without Pogacar, the battle for victory is – one way or another – a lot more exciting.

Mas, Gall, Onley and Roglic seemed to be the best at the crucial moments on the Aitana, but each time things went quiet again amongst the frontrunners. Until, 3 kilometres from the finish, Mas went all-in and took Onley with him, thereby putting Gall under pressure. Roglic saw the danger and rode towards the leading duo, but soon had to pay the price.

Mas rode stoically through the final kilometre, with a gasping Onley in his wake. The Scot made his move 200 metres from the finish, but Mas took the inside line and rode straight to victory. Impressive!