(Full text added.)
On Thursday, the athletes measured a distance of 157.7 kilometers grateful to the sprinters.
Initially, the winner of the ninth stage was the Irishman Sam Benett (“Deceuninck – Quick Step”), who spent three hours 39 minutes and 55 seconds in the distance, finishing together with a large group. Immediately behind him was Ackerman (“Bora – hansgrohe”), who was later declared the winner by the jury, as Bennett did not shy away from using his elbows in the finals.
With the decision, Bennett dropped from the first position to the end of the big group – 110th place.
Due to the above circumstances, the second place was won by the Belgian Gerben Tisen (“Lotto Soudal”), and the third was the German Max Kanter (“Sunweb”).
Today’s jubilee Liepiņš also finished with his winner on his 27th birthday, ranking 13th, which is the best performance of his career as an athlete. Previously, Liepiņš has not participated in “big” tours.
Ackerman suffered a collision 107 kilometers before the finish, but he was able to continue the race, although the second injured Spaniard, Hector Saess (“Caja Rural – Seguros RGA”), remained on the asphalt. The athlete had thoroughly inspected his helmet after the collision, but reached the finish line less than a minute behind the winner – 117th place.
Less than 15 kilometers later, another collision took place between the two athletes, but the peleton continued on its way to the finish. 13 kilometers before the finish, the tire exploded for sprint leader Primož Roglič from Slovenia (“Jumbo-Visma”), as a result of which he did not continue the fight for victory and finished in 44th place.
On Friday, cyclists will have another flat section, which will be 185 kilometers long.
Ecuadorian leader Richard Carapass (“Ineos Grenadiers”) is ahead of his closest follower Roglich by 13 seconds, and Dan Martin from Ireland (“Israel Start-Up Nation”) loses another 15 seconds. Liepiņš loses a little more than an hour and 35 minutes to the leader, taking the 104th place in the overall rating.
The Spanish tour will finish on November 8 in Madrid. The first six days of the race overlapped with this year’s Giro d’Italia.
This year, the first three stages of “Vuelta a Espana” were planned in the Netherlands, but due to a national pandemic, the prestigious cycling competition was refused. As a result, Vuelta a Espana will have only 18 stages this year, instead of 21.
For Liepiņš, this is his debut in one of the big tours. The main goal of “Trek – Segafredo” in this Spanish tour is to fight for victories in certain stages. Despite the fact that the tour has been shortened to 18 stages, there will be quite a few challenges in the 47 categorized climbs and several mountain finishes. Sprinters will have the opportunity to compete for wins in at least four stages, including the final stage with a finish in Madrid.
Mateo Mosketi was mentioned as the main contender for the team’s victories in the sprint, but he withdrew from the tour this week, so Liepiņš became the first number in the team. It was at the beginning of the season that the Dobel player made his debut for the Trek – Segafredo team and helped Mosket win two cycling races in Spain and finished in the top ten.
.
