Stage 9

The road

At the start

The wall at Valdepeñas de Jaén

Nicolas Roche takes red into a stage that ends with a kilometre of climbing through the middle of an Andalusian town. He leads Horner and Moreno by seventeen seconds and Nibali by eighteen, with Leopold König — who won yesterday for a Pro Continental team — fifth at twenty-nine. Before the wall come the Alto de los Frailes and a tight descent off it.

How it was won

1. 116 km to go

   Boasson Hagen over the Frailes

   Aramendia's long day ends at the foot of the climb and earns him the combativity prize; Txurruka goes and is passed by Kiserlovski, who holds it nearly to the summit — where Edvald Boasson Hagen stomps past everybody and over the top.

2. 28 km to go

   Twenty-five seconds is not a minute

   He needs about a minute to have any chance; the tight descent off the Frailes gives him twenty-five seconds, and Katusha lead the chase behind him with two climbers to play and no anxiety at all.

3. 32 km to go

   Caught, two kilometres out

   The Norwegian is swept up inside the last two kilometres and the favourites swing around the tight left-hander that leads into the wall through the middle of Valdepeñas de Jaén — a kilometre of climbing between houses, and the whole stage in it.

4. 4At the line

   Moreno on the steepest ramps

   Basso moves first, Kangert goes past him — and then Daniel Moreno flashes by both of them with seven hundred metres left and does not stop. His second win of the race, and the red jersey by a single second from Nicolas Roche.

The result