Meintjes conquers Les Praeres as Evenepoel takes time on his GC rivals

South African Louis Meintjes (Intermarché) won stage 9 from the breakaway as Belgian Remco Evenepoel (QuickStep) strengthened his lead by taking 72 seconds from Enric Mas and 1m 12s from Primoz Roglic

South African Louis Meintjes (Intermarché) won the ninth stage of the Vuelta a España, between Villaviciosa and Les Praeres Nava, after 174.1 km.

Meintjes attacked from the breakaway and soloed to the Asturian summit, followed by the Italian Samuele Battistela (Astana) one minute behind.

Evenepoel arrived at 1m 33s behind the winner, but way ahead of Ayuso, Enric Mas, Carlos Rodríguez and Primoz Roglic.

Evenepoel strengthened his lead in the Red Jersey. Enric Mas follows him at 1m 12s, Roglic at 1m 53s, Rodríguez at 2m 33s and Juan Ayuso at 2m 36s,

The Vuelta will enjoy the second day of rest tomorrow, as the race moves to Alicante, with a 30.9 km individual time trial on Tuesday from Elche.

VIDEO: 2022 La Vuelta Stage 9 Highlights

2022 La Vuelta Stage 9 Top 10

1 RSA Louis Meintjes Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert 04:32:39
2 ITA Samuele Battistella Astana Qazaqstan Team + 01:01
3 ITA Edoardo Zambanini Bahrain Victorious + 01:14
4 BEL Remco Evenepoel Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl Team + 01:34
5 ITA Filippo Conca Lotto Soudal + 01:58
6 ESP Juan Ayuso UAE Team Emirates + 02:08
7 FRA Simon Guglielmi Team Arkéa-Samsic + 02:08
8 ESP Enric Mas Movistar Team + 02:18
9 ESP Carlos Rodriguez INEOS Grenadiers + 02:20
10 SLO Primoz Roglic Jumbo-Visma + 02:26

2022 La Vuelta GC after Stage 9

01 BEL Remco Evenepoel Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl Team 34:02:32
02 ESP Enric Mas Movistar Team + 01:12
03 SLO Primoz Roglic Jumbo-Visma + 01:53
04 ESP Carlos Rodriguez INEOS Grenadiers + 02:33
05 ESP Juan Ayuso UAE Team Emirates + 02:36
06 GBR Simon Yates Team BikeExchange-Jayco + 03:08
07 POR Joao Almeida UAE Team Emirates + 04:32
08 COL Miguel Ángel López Astana Qazaqstan Team + 05:03
09 AUS Jai Hindley BORA-hansgrohe + 05:36
10 FRA Pavel Sivakov INEOS Grenadiers + 05:39