Remco Evenepoel takes huge gap on rivals as Louis Meintjes wins stage 9 of Vuelta a Espana

The ninth stage of the Vuelta a Espana into Les Praeres delivered a lot of action and drama, with Louis Meintjes taking the stage win on the brutal summit finish, and Remco Evenepoel taking a lot of time on his rivals after putting on a brutal attack in the final climb.

The start to the day was very fast, with the rolling start seeing several moves, with Remco Evenepoel himself looking to close attacks from Richard Carapaz. Eventually, nine riders went up the road: Samuele Battistella, Jimmy Janssens, Robert Stannard, Dylan van Baarle, Edoardo Zambanini, Louis Meintjes, Filippo Conca, José Manuel Díaz and Simon Gugliemi.

A modest breakaway, however one that got over five minutes and had the freedom to fight for the stage win. In the run-up to the final climb Samuele Battistella and Jimmy Janssens decided to make an early move and anticipate the strongest climbers, entering the climb with around 30 seconds of advantage over the rest of the group, and just over three minutes to the peloton.

Janssens went solo in the bottom of the climb, Battistella followed close but Louis Meintjes came through soon after and in the final 2.5 kilometers managed to go solo off the front. Meintjes had the legs and rode into a very important win, taking his first Grand Tour win of his career. Samuele Battistella and Edoardo Zambanini rode to second and third on the day.

In the peloton Quick-Step has set a very high pace into the base of the climb, splitting the peloton up severely. Juan Ayuso made a move in the first few meters of the climb, immediately having the Top3 following and the rest of the field coming through one by one. Soon enough Evenepoel took to the front, and he put on a gruelling pace that dropped everyone who had until then kept up with him. The Belgian took serious time on the contenders, with Primoz Roglic specifically cracking ont he final climb, as Juan Ayuso climbed up the GC after a strong effort.