'I had to keep going' - Vingegaard admits he mistimed winning attack

Jonas Vingegaard (Visma | Lease a Bike) landed a major blow to the rest of the peloton at the Vuelta a España, powering to victory on stage 9 with a convincing solo attack 11km from the finish on the climb to Valdezcaray, slashing his deficit to race leader Torstein Træen to just 37 seconds.

The pre-race favourite showed his enthusiasm to attack after a conservative performance in the Pyrenees earlier in the opening week, leaving his rivals unable to match his acceleration on the final climb to Valdezcaray.

“The moment I put my team on the front in the last climb, I felt super great today, and then on the last climb, I also felt really good and then I said to my team if they could speed up, and yeah they did, so I tried, they did super well, amazing teamwork and super happy that I could finish it off, and I couldn’t do it without them,” said Vingegaard to reporters after the finish.

When Vingegaard launched his decisive move with still 10km to the finish, only Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) could initially respond, but the Italian managed just one kilometre in the Dane's slipstream before dropping back.

Vingegaard admitted he had misjudged the distance when launching his attack, but knew he needed to commit nonetheless.

"To be honest, maybe I didn't do my homework good enough, because I thought it was closer to the finish when I attacked, and I was a bit surprised when I saw the 10km banner, but at that moment, I had the gap, and I had to keep going on it," he revealed.

João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) led the chase with Tom Pidcock (Q36.5) on his wheel, initially keeping the gap at around 10 seconds, but Vingegaard gradually extended his advantage through the final 5km.

Despite the pouring rain, Vingegaard powered to a solo victory, finishing 24 seconds ahead of Almeida and Pidcock, who crossed the line together. Felix Gall (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) soloed to fourth at 1:02.

Behind, race leader Træen (Bahrain Victorious) was distanced on the final climb, finishing in the main group of contenders behind the front four. While the Norwegian retained the red jersey heading into Monday's rest day, his lead has been significantly reduced.

Vingegaard now sits second overall at 37 seconds behind Træen, with Almeida third at 1:15 and Pidcock fourth at 1:35.

When asked if claiming the leader's jersey had been his objective on the stage, ahead of the first rest day, Vingegaard indicated was focused more on the stage result.

"Not necessarily, just more the stage win and try to take some time on my closest opponents, to be honest, I don't know if I'm in the red jersey or not."

With the first rest day approaching and Vingegaard showing ominous form, the battle for the red jersey is taking shape.