Vuelta: Meintjes at the finish on Battistella and Zambanini Evenepoel takes the lead

les praeres (spain)

Nice feat by Louis Meintjes who won by posting the ninth stage of the 77th Spanish Vuelta in cycling, from Villaviciosa to Les Praeres, 171 kilometers long. The South African preceded two Italians: Samuele Battistella, second at 1’01 “, and Edoardo Zambanini, third at 1’14”. Fourth place for the leader of the general classification Remco Evenepoel, at 1’34 ”. The Belgian can smile, however, as he broke all rivals for the final success in Madrid. The Slovenian Primoz Roglic, in fact, finished at 2’26 “behind the stage winner, the British Simon Yates at 2’37”, the Colombian Miguel Angel Lopez at 2’58 “, the Spaniard Alejandro Valverde at 3’06” . The Englishman Tao Geoghegan Hart collapsed to 5’51 ”. In general, Evenepoel now has 1’12 “over the Spaniard Enric Mas and 1’53” over Roglic. Simon Yates is at 3’08 “, the Australian Jai Hindley at 5’36” and the Ecuadorian Richard Carapaz at 14’34 “.

Meanwhile, the American Sepp Kuss (Jumbo-Visma), one of the wingmen of the reigning tri-champion Primoz Roglic, and the Dutch Wout Poels (Bahrain-Victorious) retired, before the start of the ninth stage. Poels tested positive for Covid-19 “with mild symptoms”, explained Bahrain on Twitter, while Kuss has a fever and leaves 26th in the general classification, at 6’51 “from Remco Evenepoel’s red jersey. Poels, on the other hand, was 28th, at 8’18 ”. Evenepoel’s wingman, Pieter Serry, had to stop after testing positive for Covid-19. Today is the second day of rest of the Spanish stage race, which will restart tomorrow with the tenth stage, from Elche to Alicante, an individual time trial 30.9 kilometers long. –