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
- T. Træen 🇳🇴 Bahrain
- J. Vingegaard 🇩🇰 Visma – 37″
- J. Almeida 🇵🇹 UAE – 1′15″
- T. Pidcock 🇬🇧 Q36.5 – 1′35″
- F. Gall 🇨🇭 Décathlon – 2′14″
- G. Ciccone 🇮🇹 Lidl-Trek – 2′42″
- L. Fortunato 🇮🇹 Astana – 2′47″
- M. Jorgenson 🇺🇸 Visma – 2′49″
- J. Hindley 🇦🇺 Bora – 2′53″
- G. Pellizzari 🇮🇹 Bora – 2′53″
- E. Bernal 🇨🇴 Ineos – 2′57″ and then 6 others riders before 4′30″
Points
- M. Pedersen 🇩🇰 Lidl-trek – 120 pts
- E. Vernon 🇬🇧 IPT – 111 pts
- J. Philipsen 🇧🇪 Alpecin – 105 pts
- J. Vingegaard 🇩🇰 Visma – 100 pts
- G. Ciccone 🇮🇹 Lidl-Trek – 88 pts
- 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
- J. Vine 🇦🇺 UAE – 34 pts
- L. Vervaeke 🇧🇪 Soudal-QS – 23 pts
- J. Ayuso 🇪🇸 UAE – 20 pts
- S. Quinn 🇺🇸 EF – 18 pts
- J. Nicolau 🇪🇸 Caja Rural – 16 pts
- J. Vingegaard 🇩🇰 Visma – 15 pts
Teams (rounded)
- UAE 🇳🇱
- Visma – 6′30″
- Astana – 14′15″
- Soudal-QS – 21′30″
- Décathlon – 25′45″
Agreed, UAE are really annoying and greedy. At least we can often count on them self-sabotaging and with Ayuso on the way out they will have one less star to dominate with.
The other problem is that when it is not UAE, it is Visma. Halfway into the Tour of Britain, Visma already won 3 stages out of 3… There isn’t much left for the other World-Teams. And good luck for the Pro-Teams on a class .Pro race, where there are 9 Word-Teams on the startlist (+ a couple of Pro-Teams which have World-Teams budgets)…
Same thing on the Female side on the ‘Simac’ race (WT): 3 stages out of 3 for the lone Wiebes…
Wiebes has now won 23 sprints in a row. Impressive athletic feat, but not fun to watch.
Now 24 (4/4 stages).
And +1 for UAE too. 6 Spanish stages out of 8.
Luckily, Visma had no true puncher today on the Tour of Britain!