"I got help from two Visma guys! It felt like they didn’t want Jonas to have the jersey" - Torstein Traeen narrowly keeps Vuelta lead ahead of Vingegaard after stage 9 fireworks

Torstein Traeen was expecting to lose the red jersey on stage 9 of the 2025 Vuelta a Espana. By the time Jonas Vingegaard’s searing attack had fractured the GC group on Valdezcaray, the Norwegian had already slipped out the back and into survival mode. But in the end, thanks to a mix of resilience, luck — and some unexpected help from his rival’s own team — he managed to cling onto the overall lead by just 37 seconds heading into the first rest day.

“At the end of the climb I was thinking I will not be in the red jersey, so I’m obviously quite happy that I got some help and managed to hold on,” Traeen said after the stage. “I didn’t expect [Jonas Vingegaard] to be that fast. He went really fast when he attacked, and then it was just about surviving basically.”

While most of the GC contenders were chasing Vingegaard up the road, Traeen found himself dangling in the second group — until, to his surprise, help arrived from an unlikely source. “At one point, I got help from two Visma guys,” he revealed intriguingly. “So it felt a bit like maybe they didn’t want Jonas to have the jersey yet.”

Whether it was a calculated move by Team Visma | Lease a Bike to avoid the burden of controlling the race before the second week, or simply a case of domestiques riding tempo with Traeen on their wheels, the effect was the same: the Bahrain - Victorious rider lives to fight another day in red.

For Traeen — riding his first Grand Tour as a GC contender — stage 9 was always going to be a test. The 13.3km climb to Valdezcaray wasn’t brutally steep, but it was long enough to expose any cracks. While Vingegaard, Almeida and Pidcock fought for at the front, Traeen was left measuring his losses, knowing the clock was ticking.

Ultimately, the gap to Vingegaard at the line was small enough to keep his dream alive — just. The Norwegian now has a rest day to recover and reset before the second week, where the high mountains will provide a sterner test of his staying power.

For now, though, Traeen is more than happy with how things turned out. “Now I’m looking forward to the burger tonight!”