Chris Froome has extended his lead in the Vuelta a Espana after winning stage nine on the Cumbre del Sol.
Froome attacked with 500 metres to go and held off Esteban Chaves (Orica-Scott) and Michael Woods (Cannondale-Drapac) to win the stage. The four-time Tour de France winner now has a 36-second lead over Chaves.
“That was incredible today,” Froome said. “It’s such a good feeling to get to the end of this first block with the red jersey and also a decent gap on the rest of the GC riders.”
Froome, aiming to become only the third man to win the Tour and Vuelta in the same year, is beginning to amass a significant advantage over the rest of his general classification rivals.
Vincenzo Nibali was 14 seconds back on the stage to fall 1min 17secs behind Froome in fourth with Fabio Aru a further 16 seconds back in seventh overall.
Froome took advantage of Sky not having to drive the pace in the peloton as they have for many of the early stages as Woods’ Cannondale team ensured an early 10-man breakaway never built up the time gap needed to claim the stage win.
The race favourites remained together for the first three kilometres up the ascent to the finish line before Froome burst clear.
Chaves and Woods momentarily bridged the gap, but Froome wasn’t to be denied the stage win he failed to get despite winning his fourth Tour de France last month.
“He looked back and I say again he is really an unbelievable rider. You can see why he has won the Tour de France four times,” said Chaves.
Vuelta a Espana 2017 – stage 9 results (Orihuela – Cumbre del Sol):
| 1 | Chris Froome (Team Sky) | 4:07:13 |
| 2 | Esteban Chaves (Orica-Scott) | +04” |
| 3 | Michael Woods (Cannondale-Drapac) | +05” |
| 4 | Wilco Kelderman (Team Sunweb) | +08” |
| 5 | Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha-Alpecin) | ,, |
| 6 | Alberto Contador (Trek-Segafredo) | +12” |
| 7 | David de la Cruz (Quick-Step Floors) | ,, |
| 8 | Sam Oomen (Team Sunweb) | ,, |
| 9 | Nicolas Roche (BMC) | +14” |
| 10 | Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain Merida) | ,, |
| 11 | Fabio Aru (Astana) | +17” |
| 12 | Tejay Van Garderen (BMC) | +19” |
| 13 | Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana) | ,, |
| 14 | Jack Haig (Orica-Scott) | +23” |
| 15 | Antonio Pedrero (Movistar) | +27” |
| 16 | Adam Yates (Orica-Scott) | ,, |
| 17 | Steven Kruijswijk (LottoNl-Jumbo) | +29” |
| 18 | Wout Poels (Team Sky) | +55” |
| 19 | Domenico Pozzovivo (AG2R) | +01’09” |
| 20 | Louis Meintjes (UAE Team Emirates) | ,, |
General classification after stage 9:
| 1 | Chris Froome (Team Sky) | 36:33:16 |
| 2 | Esteban Chaves (Orica-Scott) | +36” |
| 3 | Nicolas Roche (BMC) | +01’05” |
| 4 | Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain Merida) | +01’17” |
| 5 | Tejay Van Garderen (BMC) | +01’27” |
| 6 | David De La Cruz (Quick-Step Floors) | +01’30” |
| 7 | Fabio Aru (Astana) | +01’33” |
| 8 | Michael Woods (Cannondale-Drapac) | +01’52” |
| 9 | Adam Yates (Orica-Scott) | +01’55” |
| 10 | Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha-Alpecin) | +02’15” |
| 11 | Wilco Kelderman (Team Sunweb) | +02’31” |
| 12 | Sam Oomen (Team Sunweb) | +03’04” |
| 13 | Alberto Contador (Trek-Segafredo) | +03’32” |
| 14 | Wout Poels (Team Sky) | +03’45” |
| 15 | Jan Polanc (UAE Team Emirates) | +04’07” |
| 16 | Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana) | +04’09” |
| 17 | Louis Meintjes (UAE Team Emirates) | +04’42” |
| 18 | Steven Kruijswijk (LottoNl-Jumbo) | +04’46” |
| 19 | Nelson Oliveira (Movistar) | +04’50” |
| 20 | Jetse Bol (Manzana Postobon) | +05’52” |
