Vuelta a España: Dumoulin wins on Alto de Puig Llorença

Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin) stunned the overall contenders and the pure climbers on the steep finish above Calpe at the end of stage 9 of the Vuelta a España, using his time trial power to tackle the four-kilometre climb, and blast past late attacker Chris Froome (Team Sky) to win the stage. Dumoulin also put enough time into Esteban Chaves (Orica-GreenEdge) to take back the race lead.

Froome caught and passed Dumoulin inside the final kilometre and seemed set to win the stage but then the big Dutchman got out of the saddle and used his final drops of power to close the gap and pass the Briton in time to cross the line first.

Chaves finished well off the pace and so Dumoulin now leads the Vuelta by 57 seconds ahead of Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) who finished third on the stage five seconds behind Dumoulin. Chaves slipped to third at 59 seconds.

The climb and fast pace caused several gaps with Alejandro Valverde and Nairo Quintana (Movistar) both losing 20 seconds.

Dumoulin was stunned to have won and fought to catch his breath after the line. "Unbelievable," he said. "I could have never imagined this. Yesterday, I had a really bad day. The team told me just to keep going and see how it goes, and today it ended pretty well…"

The 168km stage ended with a typical steep climb to the finish but nobody expected the short climb to turn the race upside and see riders lose so much time. However after seeing much of the climb during a first passage and finally catching the 14-rider break of the day, the attacks thick and fast on the climb to the finish.

Valverde was one of the first to attack but he seemed to lack power, perhaps due to being involved in a mass crash early in the stage. When he was caught, Quintana had a go, with the Movistar living up to their promise of being more aggressive. However both seemed to pay for their efforts when the race exploded in the final two kilometres.

Dumoulin started the shake down and he tried to hit out early and perhaps open a gap on the more explosive climbers as the gradient hit double figures. He got a gap and put many of his rivals in trouble. Dumoulin was the first under the red kite indicating the final kilometre but behind him Froome mounted a serious chase and closed the gap, with Rodriguez on his wheel.

The Spaniard looked strong and determined after ordering his Katusha teammates to work all day and hearing that his father had covered the road with his ‘Purito’ nickname. However Froome and Dumoulin were even stronger. Froome hit out alone, dropping his two rivals and could see the finish ahead of him. However the steep gradient turned the action into slow motion and made every pedal stroke painful.

Froome lacked power but Dumoulin found some thing extra by getting out of the saddle and stomping on the pedals. He closed the gap and got around Froome in time to hit the line first, win the stage and take the race lead. It was a perfect day for the big Dutchman.

Froome was disappointed to miss out on the win but praised Dumoulin. "I thought I had it there for a second but Dumoulin is showing incredible form in this race and hats off to him. He's a young rider with a bright future ahead of him," Froome said

"I don't think my attack was too far out. I gave it everything. I did try and ride more conservatively at the bottom to save something for an effort at the top if I had the legs. i'm just happy I was up there and didn't lose too much time today."

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