Simon Yates takes red
As Ben King took his second win in this year’s Vuelta, the GC saw some big changes in the overall classification. Rudy Molard was dropped quickly on the last climb, and it was clear that his days in red were over. Surprisingly, Kwiatkowski and Valverde were unable to compete with the rest of the GC contenders as well, and were dropped later on. In the end, it was Simon Yates who claimed the red jersey. He finished only 9 seconds behind Quintana’s group and 15 seconds ahead of Valverde. That means he now holds a one-second lead over Alejandro.
“It wasn’t expected for me to be in the leader’s jersey at the end of the stage today. I was just trying to follow the best guys in the race and I was a little bit behind by a few secs, so it is a bit of a surprise… A good surprise,” Yates said after the stage.
GC after stage 9
1 Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) 36:54:52
2 Alejandro Valverde (Movistar Team) + 1s
3 Nairo Quintana (Movistar Team) + 14s
4 Emanuel Buchmann (Bora-Hansgrohe) + 16s
5 Ion Izagirre (Bahrain-Merida) + 17s
6 Tony Gallopin (AG2R La Mondiale) + 24s
7 Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana Pro Team) + 27s
8 Rigoberto Uran (EF Education First-Drapac) + 32s
9 Steven Kruijswijk (LottoNL-Jumbo) + 43s
10 George Bennett (LottoNL-Jumbo) + 48s
