Bahrain Victorious rider Damiano Caruso won Sunday's mountainous ninth stage of the Vuelta a España as
Primoz Roglič strengthened his grip on the overall lead, coming second ahead
of Enric Mas.

Colombian hope Egan Bernal was unable to follow Jumbo-Visma's Roglič and
Movistar's Mas as the competition stiffened on the upper reaches of a 13.2km
ascent to Alto de Velefique.

Caruso, a 33-year-old Italian, was runner up on the Giro d'Italia in May
and on Sunday promised to attack from distance before his winning effort.
He was able to pace himself up the final 13km ascent after building a lead
of around five minutes over the red jersey group by the foot of the climb,
with Slovenian Roglič just 1 minute 05 seconds off his pace by the finish line.
Caruso attacked alone with 71km to go.

"The last climb was so long," an exhausted but exuberant Caruso said at the
finish line. "It's still unbelievable what I did. It was an amazing feeling and a repeat
of this feeling after the Giro is incredible for me."

Ineos' Colombian leader Bernal came in 2min 10 sec down on Caruso, leaving
questions over the 24-year-old adding a Vuelta victory to his Tour de France
in 2019 and Giro in May.

- Alliance of fortune -
Roglič has a reputation of going to pieces when isolated from his team, but
on Sunday he struck an alliance of fortune with Mas when the pair sensed Ineos
duo Bernal and a Adam Yates could be dropped.

After crossing the finish line with the Ineos riders a minute adrift, Mas
and Roglič shook hands warmly.

"He's the leader and it was good to work with him, we went together," said
an enthusiastic Mas, who is 28sec off Roglič in second place overall. Roglič refused to be drawn on his feelings over how bad this was for Ineos.

"It was super hot again," he complained. "I survived."

"It's a beginning. Now we have the rest day, and we just need to stay in
one piece healthy with the whole team and then we'll be looking for the next
stages," said the double defending champion.

Monday is the Vuelta's first rest day ahead of four hilly, one flat and two
mountain stages in the week ahead, followed by another rest day.
The final week holds three tough mountain stages and a final-day individual
time-trial at the pilgrim city of Santiago de Compostella.