Stage 9: Orihuela. Ciudad del Poeta Miguel Hernández - Cumbre del Sol. El Poble Nou de Benitatxell, 174km
This stage is essentially the Vuelta's winter training camp preview of the Costa Blanca. The road is seaside promenade flat apart from the Alto de Puig Llorença, hit twice, at 134km and then in the finale when the race carries on to the line at Cumbre del Sol, with sections up to 20 per cent. Tom Dumoulin won here in 2015, over Chris Froome.
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An improvised parking lot podium for Vuelta a España with drink coolers as steps and podium pooches
Chaos around the Madrid finale may have halted the official ceremony but another plan quickly evolved -
2025 gravel national champions index
A guide to who is wearing the jersey of a gravel national champion and when the title battles take place -
Virginia's Blue Ridge CO Cross: Rochette and Strohmeyer go back-to-back with C2 victories in Roanoke
Bakker and Mani earn podiums on Sunday for elite women while Brunner repeats in second ahead of Werner for elite men -
Eyewitness: Destroyed barricades, flares and police lines – the unfolding turmoil that stopped the Vuelta a España reaching the final finish line in Madrid
As riders celebrated on the road in the early kilometres of stage 21 ominous signs mounted around the pro-Palestine protest lined barriers of the final circuit
