'I couldn't do my job properly' - Mühlberger rues early effort as Decathlon fall short on Aitana

Gregor Mühlberger was left frustrated by the timing of his effort on the Alto de Aitana after Decathlon CMA CGM helped shape the decisive phase of stage 9 of the Vuelta a España but came away without the victory they had worked for.

Decathlon took responsibility on the lower slopes of the 21.9 kilometre final climb, increasing the pressure as the group of general classification contenders began to shrink. Sepp Kuss was among the first major names to lose contact, with 7.4 kilometres remaining, before Felix Gall launched the first of several accelerations shortly afterwards.

Mühlberger, however, felt his contribution had come too soon.

"I should have pulled from around seven or six K on, so I was a bit too early in the wind and I couldn't do my job properly," Mühlberger said. "This was not perfect, I would say. But some guys today were stronger than others and we didn't expect it."

His turn helped establish the conditions for an aggressive finale. Gall attacked with seven kilometres remaining and went again after the remnants of the breakaway had been swept up, while Richard Carapaz and Oscar Onley also tried to force the selection.

Pavel Sivakov, the final survivor from the day's break, was caught with 4.6 kilometres to go. From there, the race became a direct battle between the general classification contenders.

Enric Mas made the decisive difference. The red jersey attacked first with 3.2 kilometres remaining and again at 1.8 kilometres, when only Onley could follow. Mas eventually beat the Briton in the sprint for his first Vuelta stage victory, while Primož Roglič finished ten seconds behind and Gall crossed the line fourth at 31 seconds.

For Decathlon, it was another day in which their willingness to animate the race was clear, even if the result did not quite match the work they had put in.

"The team is amazing, the team is super strong. I would not say really disappointed, but we have to talk more in the next two weeks in the radio, how we feel and how we can do our work," Mühlberger said. "We tried a lot. I think we showed again that we are pretty offensive."

Gall offered a similar assessment, suggesting Decathlon may have overplayed their hand in trying to make the final climb as selective as possible.

"Today, I think we perhaps wanted a little too much," Gall said in a statement by the team. "In the finale, we went quite early to make the race really hard. Personally, I think I also did a bit too much in the final five kilometres."

With a headwind on the upper slopes, Gall said he began to struggle with two kilometres remaining, but limited his losses with a stronger finish.

"There was a headwind and I struggled slightly with two kilometres to go. But after that, I managed to finish strongly, pace my effort well and make sure the time loss wasn't too significant today."

Gall's assessment echoed Mühlberger's: Decathlon had succeeded in making the race hard, but may have committed too much too early.

That willingness to take control has become a theme of Decathlon's Vuelta. They forced the pace on the Port d'Envalira in Andorra, again on the approach to the gravel climb before Castelló, and on Valdelinares, where their work for Gall drew the attack that took Tadej Pogačar clear of the other contenders.

On Aitana, they again committed numbers before the decisive moves began. The difference was that Mas and Onley ultimately had more left when the climb entered its steepest competitive phase.

Gall arrived in Spain having finished second at this year's Giro d'Italia behind Jonas Vingegaard and having won the Vuelta a Burgos overall in August, the first general classification victory of his career. He now sits 21 seconds behind Primož Roglič in the fight for second, with Mas 1:18 clear of the Slovenian.

After another demanding day in the mountains, Mühlberger was looking forward to Monday's first rest day.

"Ready for the rest day," he said.

The Vuelta resumes on Tuesday with stage 10, a 184.7 kilometre route from Alcaraz to Elche de la Sierra.