One of the big question marks of the first week of the Vuelta a España was Visma-Lease a Bike 's cautious approach on the climbs, letting breakaways go on stages 6 and 7, with Jonas Vingegaard in purely defensive mode instead of his usual aggressive style.

But the Dane, after his second victory in this 2025 Vuelta and the extraordinary work of the team that launched him to solo success in Valdezcaray, confirmed that the problem was precisely his legs and that, feeling much better on stage 9, he couldn't help but attack.

"I felt really great from the start of the stage today," Vingegaard explained in the press conference. "Initially, we thought it would be a breakaway stage, but only five riders started. We hadn't planned on using the whole team to chase, but then Trek and Q36.5 started pulling away."

Although the final 13.3km climb at 5% didn't seem ideal for a solo effort, when Vingegaard asked the team to launch him, Matteo Jorgenson took the lead and pushed hard, allowing the captain to open up a gap.

Only Giulio Ciccone initially managed to keep up, but after just over a kilometer, the Italian also had to throw in the towel, ultimately losing 1'46" to the flying Dane. Not even João Almeida and Tom Pidcock's attempted comeback managed to trouble Vingegaard, who crossed the finish line 24 seconds ahead of the chasing duo.

"I felt much better than in the previous mountain stages," concluded Vingegaard, now just 37 seconds behind Torstein Træen's red jersey. With the punishing climbs of L'Angliru and La Farrapona coming up in the second week, the pre-race favorite's return to form has all his rivals trembling.