Vuelta a España stage 9 preview - Sierra Nevada mountains and heat signal 'the first real crunch moment'

And so it begins. After stages to Pico Villuercas and through the sierras of Cadiz and Jaén to whet the appetite, stage 9 of the Vuelta a España will see Ben O’Connor defending his red leader’s jersey against a host of potential contenders in a fearsomely difficult mountain stage in Sierra Nevada.

The challenges on Sunday will not just be the rivals or the three major climbs tackled en route to a downhill finish in Granada; the Vuelta will also face yet another day of intense heat, with temperatures soaring to the mid 30s or perhaps higher. 

"It’s the first real crunch moment in the Vuelta," O'Connor's Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale sports director Cyril Dessel told Cyclingnews earlier this weekend. “The first big moment of the first week and the first out-and-out high mountain stage of the race.

"What’s also true is that before the Vuelta Ben had marked down this stage with an X as one of the ones he thought he could do well in, because he knows the roads really well. Sierra Nevada is where a lot of riders, not just Ben, have trained at altitude.

"So we’re in a situation which we didn’t necessarily imagine beforehand, having the leader’s jersey. But we’ll do our utmost to defend it."

Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale do have 'previous' defending a Grand Tour leader’s jersey, but it dates from well before any of their current riders turned pro. In 2009 Rinaldo Nocentini was Tour de France race leader for eight days, from Andorra to Verbier, when eventual winner Alberto Contador took over the top spot on GC.

Dessel, as it happens, was one of the Italian's teammates on the Tour that year, as was his co-sports director at the Vuelta, Stéphane Goubert, and Dessel himself was briefly the yellow jersey back in 2006. So their first-hand experience of defending an unexpected race lead may well be helpful again. But the longstanding French team have never had a race lead in either the Giro or Vuelta and just as for O’Connor, Sunday represents something of a voyage in the dark.

Saturday’s setback for O’Connor at Cazorla, losing the bones of a minute of his lead to Roglič, only raised the stakes higher, of course. But as O’Connor pointed out after Saturday’s stage, "Tomorrow [stage 9] is very different. I don’t mind these climbs in Sierra Nevada. Hopefully I have a good day and keep this red jersey."

Steep climbs, tricky descents, and Vuelta history

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Sunday’s stage is without a doubt one of the four or five hardest stages of the entire 2024 Vuelta a España, and certainly the most challenging so far. It features a double ascent of the brutally difficult Alto de Hazallanas climb, as well as the fearsome Puerto de El Purche to warm things up. Both climbs are different but almost equally tough approach roads to the Sierra Nevada ski station. 

El Purche, in particular, is steeped in Vuelta history - although in terms of Australians and the race, it does not figure that favourably. Known at the time at the Alto de Monachil, it was on El Purche in 2009 where a slow neutral service assist caused Cadel Evans, fleetingly the race leader, to lose any chance of taking the overall victory. 

As for Hazallanas, in its first appearance in 2013, it mattered enormously, as it was where US racer Chris Horner blasted away to make a significant down payment on winning the 2013 race overall. After not being particularly relevant when the race went up to Sierra Nevada in 2017 and 2022, this time around, with a double descent and a fast drop down to Granada, 11 years on there’s every chance it could have an equally crucial role to 2013.

The descents off Sierra Nevada can be almost as relevant as the climbs, too, with part of the long drop off Hazallanas back into Granada the same one used in 2006, when Alexander Vinokourov managed to leave behind an under-geared race leader Alejandro Valverde and move into the top spot overall. The approach to Hazallanas, too, consists of a short but infamously technical and narrow, ‘corkscrew’ descent - which then promptly starts with a ‘wall’ of some 13 or 14%, ensuring an even more nervous approach.

"We’re going to do everything we can to limit the gaps. But it’s worth remembering that in 2022, when we went up via Hazallanas to Sierra Nevada, Ben got fifth," Dessel says. 

"So it’s a climb which is very hard, and so is the whole last part of the stage, in fact; there are 2,750 metres of vertical climbing in 67 kilometres, and lots of hard percentages on those climbs as well.

"It’ll be hard to control the race, for sure. But we’ve got nearly four minutes' advantage right now and we can play it defensively, even if others will be determined to attack us as much as they can."

Can O'Connor survive another Roglič onslaught?

O’Connor will also be able to rely on several expert climbers to help him in the high mountains, of whom Felix Gall and Valentin Paret-Peintre are probably the best known. The Austrian was an Alpine stage winner in the Tour de France in 2023, and Paret-Peintre followed suit in the southernmost Apennines in the Giro this May.
Gall was already alongside the Australian on the key climbs on stages 7 and 8, which bodes well for his chances of acting as a top mountain escort for O’Connor on Sunday, and is currently lying 10th overall himself.

"Felix is in a very good position, too," Dessel said. "I’m not going to tell you all the plans we have for Felix for Sunday, but he’s well-placed and we’ll see how we use him."

Regardless of Gall’s role, the real mountains test will be for O’Connor and whether after Saturday’s defeat - but by no means a rout -  he can handle the raspingly steep ascents of Sierra Nevada.

“You could say these kinds of climbs suit him because he’s a rider who is really good at getting over multiple long, hard mountains in rapid succession,” Dessel said. “That’s what we’re facing on Sunday - three difficult ascent and I’m sure that’sll suit him better than a shorter, punchier ascent like we had on stage 4, for example.

“Also stage 4 was a bit special, because it was so hot. There were a couple of climbs early on, but they went so slowly through that baking heat that it was basically as if it was a single climb, which is something that doesn’t suit him. But Sunday is much better."

Even with that proven climbing ability, for O’Connor defending a Grand Tour lead in a high mountain stage as tough as Sierra Nevada is going to be something of a voyage in the dark. But for Dessel, one element is all but guaranteed to form part of Sunday’s stage - that Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) and the other GC rivals will be pushing O’Connor as hard as they possible can.

"Roglič is a formidable rival,” Dessel said. “He never throws in the towel and he’s going to fight every day to go for the Vuelta. So I have no doubt he’ll take every opportunity he can to attack.”

Even before Cazorla, as Dessel points out, “We saw in Córdoba that he made his team work flat out, even when it wasn’t so hard and he went for a time bonus. So there’ll be a battle on Sunday [stage 9] and next week almost every day there’s a GC opportunity, too. 

“But one thing is important to remember: the Vuelta is a long way from its finish in Madrid, there are going to be loads of fights to come. And it’s not just Roglič who’s come here to fight for the Vuelta victory, either."

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