As we finish up stage nine of this year’s Vuelta a España we coast into a rest day. I guess coast isn’t the right word, as we’ve just witnessed one of the most competitive stages we’ve seen in a Grand Tour in a while. But I guess that’s what you get when Jonas Vingegaard(VLAB) and Tadej Pogačar (UAE) are missing from action and the team of the favorite (Roglic) just absolutely refuses to use sound race tactics.

Wilerflits

Here are the Stage Winners so far. Stage 6 being the most consequential, where a blazing Ben O’Conner (AG2R) finished first while putting over 6:00 over the rest of the GC favorites. Absolute killer of a stage. Highly recommend watching it, especially for those Ben O’Conner haters.

ProCyclingStats

Now a lot can happen in the last two weeks of a Grand Tour, we are FAR from finished, and Roglic (BORA) has put more time on better riders on single stages than the 3:53 he’s currently sitting back. That’s also why I’m not worried about Sepp Kuss (VLAB) being 14th and over 8 minutes back. Even after covering attacks by Marc Soler (UAE) on stage 7, helping Wout sprint for the win. Sepp truly is the best teammate in the peloton right now, but he is also a skilled and fast climber. And I think he’ll have plenty of chances with ~60,000 vertical meters in this year’s parcourse.

Richard Carapaz’s (EFE) effort in stage 9 to jump up 15(!!) spots in GC to now firmly sit in third was nothing short of heroic. This guy just loves to climb, and I think he proved that with his KOM jersey from the 2024 Tour de France and now sitting at third in GC after a the MASSIVE stage 9.

Some surprises from this Vuelta so far though, is the lack of strategy from the Red Bull Bora Hansgrohe team. I’m not saying it’s time to panic for you, Roglic fans, but I think a fair question to ask is whether Roglic will have the same success on Red Bull Bora as he did with Visma Lease-A-Bike. And that’s not taking anything away from him as a rider, it’s simply a question of tactics and the strength of the team. And I think it’s ironic that we’re finding this out in the Vuelta, where he famously attacked the Red Jersey (worn by Sepp Kuss) in a fairly selfish display of a lack of gamesmanship and loyalty on Roglic’s part.

IDLProCycling

And what about Cian Uijtdebroeks(VLAB)? He finished in the top 10 of this race last year, and after 9 stages he’s sitting 44 minutes behind in GC in 48th. He was showing so much promise but this season he seems to have taken a step back so far. João Almeida (UAE) entered the race as a favorite and DNS Stage 9 after suffering in stage 8, going 10 minutes back in GC, and then testing positive for Covid19, so he went home early. Which is a shame, because without Pogačar here, this was really his time to shine. I think the same could be said for Cian too, with Jonas not being here and Sepp seeming to be struggling in the early parts of the race. Which he tends to do anyway.

But something I’m very excited to play out, is how AG2R is going to react to letting Ben O’Conner sign with Jayo-Alula for 2025, after he starts to show motivation and GC promise? I understand why they did it, and it makes sense… but it’s still gotta sting if this plays out the way it might.

Although like I said, we have 2 weeks of more bike racing to go. That leaves a lot of time for major GC changes. I don’t think anybody’s favorites are out of the mix yet, but I do think that some of the younger favorites like Uijtdebroeks may have dug a hole that will be too deep to get out.

Either way, we have two weeks of competitive and climby bike racing… that’s my absolute favorite! Also … peep stage twenty… Bodies will be strewn out all over the Spanish roads.