Vuelta a España stage 9: Damiano Caruso scores with long solo, Primož Roglič extends GC lead

Damiano Caruso (Bahrain-Victorious) scored a spectacular solo victory on the toughest day so far of the Vuelta a España.

Caruso kicked away from the break at some 70km to go, built a strong gap over a charging Ineos Grenadiers through the second climb of the stage and hung tough as the race exploded behind him on the summit finish to win stage 9 by over one minute.

Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma) stamped his authority on the GC group, marking a series of attacks from Adam Yates (Ineos Grenadiers) before outsprinting Enric Mas (Movistar) in the final to claim second-place and gain a few more seconds on GC.

Roglič now leads the classification by 28 seconds over Mas after starting the day with an 8-second gap over Felix Großschartner (Bora-Hansgrohe). The Austrian rider slid down the GC to ninth.

Yates, Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) and Miguel Ángel López (Movistar) all lost time on Roglič and Mas in the all-attacking final. López is now in third overall at 1:21.

It was a bittersweet day for Bahrain-Victorious despite Caruso’s standout victory.

Mikel Landa lost the wheels on the final climb and lost a wedge of time on GC, while Jack Haig continued to hold strong in the classification with his finish in fourth on the stage. The Aussie now sits fourth overall.

Bernal, López, Yates lose out in GC showdown

The summit finish atop Alto de Velefique saw a number of GC contenders lose time in what was an explosive final.

Yates attacked three times before fading at the last. The Brit went first at 8.7km to go, sparking a flurry of counterattacks. Roglič was like a rocketship in covering the first move, covering the gap with a fierce acceleration.

Yates and then Richard Carapaz went again soon after the group came back together as Ineos Grenadiers attempted to make numbers count, only to see the group come back onto their wheels.

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Yates attacked a third time at 5km to go and his move finally stuck as Roglič, Mas and López chased.

Yates faded at 4km to go, leaving Mas and Roglič to roar clear of their rivals. The red-hot pace eventually saw López, Bernal and Carapaz fall out of the group and lose time in the overall.

Mas and Roglič roared clear as the rest of the bunch suffered. The pair worked together through the final stretches of the climb before Roglič powered away at 200 meters to go to finish second on the stage and grab a handful more time overall.

Caruso goes early

It took almost 100km of racing before the break stuck after an opening two hours of warp-speed attacking and counter-attacking.

It wasn’t until the base of the huge Venta Luisa climb that Caruso escaped with 10 others. The Sicilian veteran didn’t wait long and made his attack not long after the break formed.

Caruso punched away at 70km to go and rode to a 90-second lead over the chasing Rafal Majka (UAE-Emirates), Julen Amezqueta (Caja Rural) and Romain Bardet (DSM) at the top of the cat.1 Venta Luisa.

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Ineos Grenadiers early aggression makes no impact

Ineos Grenadiers was on patrol at the front of the reduced peloton once Caruso went clear.

Caruso posed a threat to GC after starting the day around seven minutes back and Bernal and Co didn’t want to allow him back into GC-range. The British squad burned through a number of its riders as it pulled through the middle of the race, but neither closed the gap to Caruso nor managed to set a tempo to trouble any of its GC rivals.

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Ineos Grenadiers gave up on its high-tempo strategy at 40km to go, leaving Jumbo-Visma to lead the bunch through the final phase of the race.

Roglič’s crew let the gap go back out to the escape groups, leaving Caruso to race into a five-minute lead at the base of the decisive Velefique summit finish.

Ineos Grenadiers again took charge at 10km to go on the Velefique summit, dropping Caruso’s teammate Landa and setting up the series of attacks from Yates.

Rest day to come Monday

The peloton takes a well-earned rest day Monday. The Vuelta resumes Tuesday with a second week stacked with transitional stages favoring the sprinters and breakaway riders before another weekend of mountain action on stages 14 and 15.