MADRID, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- 20-year-old Slovenian rider Tadej Pogacar from the UAE Team Emirates won an epic ninth stage of the Vuelta de Espana cycle race on Sunday to underline his enormous potential as a future champion.
Nairo Quintana from Movistar finished second and went into the overall leader's jersey, but Primoz Roglic finished third just 25 seconds behind the Colombian and will be delighted with his display as he is just six seconds behind Quintana and is expected to take time off all of his rivals in Tuesday's time trial.
The 94 kilometer stage may have been short, but with five categorized climbs in the principality of Andorra it allowed the riders absolutely to time to rest and the racing was flat out from start to finish.
The intensity of the stage and the fact that Monday is a rest day meant the race began in earnest from the first kilometer with continued attacks splitting the riders into groups all over the road.
By the last climb, the main favorites had come together, although Miguel Angel Lopez from Astana looked as if he had launched a powerful and possibly decisive attack.
A tremendous thunderstorm made conditions on the road increasingly difficult and Lopez fell on a treacherous 4 kilometer section of gravel road to allow the Movistar duo of Quintana and Alejandro Valverde to catch and overtake him.
With another Movistar rider Marc Soler further up the road , Quintana attacked again and Solar showed his displeasure when ordered to sit up and wait for Quintana.
However, it was Pogacar who was the strongest rider on the day and he left both Soler and Quintana behind to claim a stage he is unlikely to forget in a hurry.