ProTeam Jarno Widar heads into Vuelta rest day with another top-ten finish in tough mountain stage

For a long time, it looked like the breakaway would make it to the finish in today’s 187-kilometre mountain stage to the Alto de Aitana– featuring just under 5,000 metres of elevation gain– but things turned out differently on the demanding final climb. Jarno Widar was among those joining the battle from the group behind and helped chase down the breakaway. “On the Aitana, it was simply a matter of going up as hard as possible,” Widar reflects. “I chose to ride at my own pace and that worked well. With three kilometres to go, I tried to follow Roglič to get back to Onley and Mas, but unfortunately that proved a little too ambitious. I blew myself up there and paid for it heavily in the final 500 metres.”

Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Widar still secured an impressive seventh place in stage nine, finishing behind the likes of red jersey Enric Mas, white jersey Oscar Onley and Primož Roglič. He heads into the rest day with two top-ten finishes to his name. In stage four, he already impressed by taking second place behind Tadej Pogačar. “The day before yesterday, in stage seven, I did have concrete legs,” Widar says as he assesses his first nine days of the Vuelta. “Luckily, we managed to sort that out. Apart from that, on day nine I still feel pretty much the same as I did at the start. That’s good news.”

For those keeping an eye on the general classification anyway: Widar sits twelfth after today.

Picture: PhotoNews