This week (starting on Tuesday after the first rest day) will probably be the harder of all stages blocks.

First we come back to the Navarese Pyrenees, but then we travel westwards again, along the Atlantic coast, or more exactly for the climbs, along the Cantabrian range. Basque Country, Cantabria, Asturias and Galicia will be visited in order.

Standings after stage 9

General

  1. T. Træen 🇳🇴 Bahrain
  2. J. Vingegaard 🇩🇰 Visma – 37″
  3. J. Almeida 🇵🇹 UAE – 1′15″
  4. T. Pidcock 🇬🇧 Q36.5 – 1′35″
  5. F. Gall 🇨🇭 Décathlon – 2′14″
  6. G. Ciccone 🇮🇹 Lidl-Trek – 2′42″
  7. L. Fortunato 🇮🇹 Astana – 2′47″
  8. M. Jorgenson 🇺🇸 Visma – 2′49″
  9. J. Hindley 🇦🇺 Bora – 2′53″
  10. G. Pellizzari 🇮🇹 Bora – 2′53″
  11. E. Bernal 🇨🇴 Ineos – 2′57″ and then 6 others riders before 4′30″

Points

  1. M. Pedersen 🇩🇰 Lidl-trek – 120 pts
  2. E. Vernon 🇬🇧 IPT – 111 pts
  3. J. Philipsen 🇧🇪 Alpecin – 105 pts
  4. J. Vingegaard 🇩🇰 Visma – 100 pts
  5. G. Ciccone 🇮🇹 Lidl-Trek – 88 pts
  6. D. Gaudu 🇫🇷 FDJ – 62 pts

NB : only Ciccone and Vingegaard swapped places since we arrived in Spain, otherwise the members and order of top-6 is the same as it was.

Mountain

  1. J. Vine 🇦🇺 UAE – 34 pts
  2. L. Vervaeke 🇧🇪 Soudal-QS – 23 pts
  3. J. Ayuso 🇪🇸 UAE – 20 pts
  4. S. Quinn 🇺🇸 EF – 18 pts
  5. J. Nicolau 🇪🇸 Caja Rural – 16 pts
  6. J. Vingegaard 🇩🇰 Visma – 15 pts

Teams (rounded)

  1. UAE 🇳🇱
  2. Visma – 6′30″
  3. Astana – 14′15″
  4. Soudal-QS – 21′30″
  5. Décathlon – 25′45″
  • Deschanel2017OPM
    1·
    1 month ago

    I suppose it was a way to test them, but it seemed like it could have been done smarter.

    Well, it certainly didn’t work. But UAE seems to be facing the same problem that Visma was facing on the Tour de France: they can try all sorts of strategies, but as long as their leader cannot drop his (stronger) opponent from his back wheel, and there is no incident, there is nothing that they can do.

    They should start considering the Pidcock issue, too. I suppose they bet he will drop on true mountain stages with several passes, but they will have to make sure it happens by riding harder and not on-and-off, otherwise he may as well pass the such stages which are scarce this year.