Vuelta a Espana: Tom Dumoulin takes lead with stage nine win

By Matt Westby

Monday 31 August 2015 17:32, UK

A resurgent Chris Froome finished second and moved up to eighth overall as Tom Dumoulin took the lead of the Vuelta a Espana by winning a pulsating ninth stage.

All of the race favourites played out a remarkable battle on the steep, 4km final climb to the summit finish at Cumbre del Sol, attacking each other multiple times before Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin) finally broke clear in the last 50m to beat Froome (Team Sky) by two seconds and third-placed Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) by five seconds.

The Dutchman collected 10 bonus seconds for the win and moves from second place to the top of the general classification, 57 seconds ahead second-placed Rodriguez and 59 seconds ahead of third-placed Esteban Chaves (Orica-GreenEdge), the previous race leader who was dropped earlier in the climb.

Froome, who picked up six bonus seconds, is now 1min 18sec off the lead and, significantly, has reduced his deficit to his red jersey rivals Nairo Quintana (Movistar) and Alejandro Valverde (Movistar), who finished 18 and 26 seconds down on the Briton in sixth and seventh respectively on the day.

Froome was initially dropped at the bottom of the climb but later caught back up with the group of race favourites and then looked to have won the stage when he attacked with 200m remaining and took a lone lead.

However, an aggressive Dumoulin attacked for the fourth time with about 120m to go and overtook Froome to claim a win that suggests that, despite being a time-trial specialist, he has the climbing form to sustain a challenge for overall victory.

Froome said at the finish line: "I'm gutted. I thought I had it for a second there, but Dumoulin has shown incredible form in this race. Hats off to him. He is a young rider with a bright future ahead of him.

"I gave it everything. I tried to ride more conservatively at the bottom to save something for an effort at the top if I had the legs. More than anything I'm happy that I was up there and didn't lose too much time today."

The attacking began at the very bottom of the climb, which reached a maximum of 19 per cent in gradient, when Valverde accelerated and took Chaves, Quintana and Rodriguez with him.

That quartet was soon caught, but then attacks followed from Quintana, Dumoulin three times, Chaves, Fabio Aru (Astana), Rafal Majka (Tinkoff-Saxo) and Froome as the favourites engaged in arguably the most action-packed battle on a summit finish of the whole season.

By the final 500m, with Chaves dropped and both Valverde and Quintana wilting, Rodriguez and then Froome both launched what looked to be decisive attacks, but Dumoulin managed to stick with them and conjured the energy for one last stage-winning acceleration.

The Vuelta continues on Monday with a 146.6km 10th stage from Valencia to Borja. Follow the action with our live blog from 3pm BST.

Stage nine result

1 Tom Dumoulin (Ned) Giant-Alpecin, +4:09:55

2 Chris Froome (GB) Team Sky, +2sec

3 Joaquim Rodriguez (Esp) Katusha, +5

4 Fabio Aru (Ita) Astana, +16

5 Rafal Majka (Pol) Tinkoff-Saxo, +18

6 Nairo Quintana (Col) Movistar, +20

7 Alejandro Valverde (Esp) Movistar, +28

8 Nicolas Roche (Irl) Team Sky, +31

9 Domenico Pozzovivo (Ita) Ag2r-La Mondiale, +33

10 Louis Meintjes (RSA) MTN-Qhubeka, +34