The main contenders lined up behind race leader Remco Evenepoel (QuickStep-AlphaVinyl) at the end of stage 8, ready to pounce should the red jersey falter on the 171km stage 9. Sunday is packed with more climbing, and another menacing mountaintop finish, before the race's second rest day.
Again, the route is littered with numerous categorised climbs, including the first-category Mirador del Fito midway through. The main test, as ever, comes at the end. The steepest slopes are saved for the brutal finish at Les Praeres, where Simon Yates retook red for good in 2018.
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The conclusion of the mountain doubleheader in Asturias, with back-to-back first-category summit finishes will bring the weekend total to more than 6,000 metres of vertical climbing in northern Spain. On Saturday it was Jay Vine (Alpecin-Deceuninck) who came rising across the 11.7km climb amid the misty finish line at Colláu Fancuaya to take his second mountain stage and the KOM jersey, but behind him the storm clouds emerged for the GC battle.
Evenepoel finished fifth on the stage, but was marked pedal turn by pedal stroke by Enric Mas (Movistar) and Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma) and they moved into second and third on GC. Then Carlos Rodríguez (Ineos Grenadiers) and Simon Yates (BikeExchange-Jayco) emerged from the cloud a few seconds later, the Ineos rider 1:47 back in fourth and Yates within striking distance at 2:05.
(Image credit: La Vuelta)
Stage 9 is slightly longer than stage 8, with the tough category 1 Fito ascent coming at the mid-point of the route. The four classified climbs that precede Les Praeres will bite, but the final sting of the climb even more so.
1988 Tour de France winner Pedro Delgado, who regularly checks out all the summit finishes of the Vuelta before the race, told Cyclingnews that the descent off the cat 3 La Campa is long but leads to the approach road to the final climb that is "fast and very narrow so quite dangerous".
The last 1.5km of Les Praeres is a cement surface. The full climb is only 3.8km long but at an average of 13.8% and with stretches heading up 24% in the final 500 metres.
It's a finish that is set to bring time gains, as well as notable losses.
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