(Reuters) – Britain’s Adam Yates went all alone to win stage nine of the Vuelta a Espana on Sunday as Australian Ben O’Connor finished third and held onto his overall lead.
Yates was part of an early breakaway group, but with 58 kilometres still to race the UAE Team Emirates rider went alone and held off the challenge of Ecuador’s Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) who finished one minute 39 seconds behind.
O’Connor outsprinted Mikel Landa and Florian Lipowitz on the line to take third on the stage and claimed four bonus seconds to increase his lead over Primoz Roglic to three minutes 53 seconds.
Carapaz moved up to third overall and Yates was rewarded for his efforts as he went from 27th to seventh in the general classification after his first Vuelta stage win.
(Reporting by Trevor Stynes, editing by Ed Osmond)
