Cycling

La Vuelta Stage 9 odds and predictions

The 2023 La Vuelta is starting to heat up and Stage 9 is yet another opportunity for the main favourites to try and gain an advantage over each other as we have another summit finish ahead of us. Below you can check all La Vuelta Stage 9 odds and also you’ll find our La Vuelta Stage 9 predictions.

Vuelta stage 9 scaled
Photo by Icon sport

La Vuelta Stage 9 Profile

The 2023 La Vuelta Stage 9 starts at ancient Cartagena and heads through some hilly terrain towards the mountain summit finish in Caravaca de la Cruz. This stage is all about the last climb of the day and is expected to unfold an exciting battle between the main favourites. The stage is 184.5 km (114.6 miles) long and the starting time is 11:39 GMT. Meanwhile, the  estimated finish time is 16:15 GMT.

Stage 9
From La Vuelta official website

The route starts from the ancient port of Cartagena and heads straight inland through the Murcia region. 

The first part of the stage is flat before the route starts to climb after approximately one hour of racing. The Puerto Casas de Marina la Perdiz is an 11.5-kilometre long climb at 4.9%. The route then continues through hilly terrain. The road goes up and down during the rest of the day, so an early breakaway can be expected.

However, for any breakaway to reach the line ahead of the main contenders the gap come the final climb of the day needs to be significant. The expectations are that the main favourites will attack each other with venom in this last climb. Here is more about it. It is an 8.2-kilometre long and averaging 5.5%, but that’s not an apt description at all. It’s wildly irregular ascent with short downhills playing leapfrog with sections at 15%. The steepest stretch goes up at 20%, while the last kilometre ramps up to 9.5%.

Our betting tips and predictions for La Vuelta Stage 9

With the 2023 La Vuelta now on its way, all eyes are on team Jumbo-Visma which contains the two main favourites for the overall win. However, many other riders have high aspirations and this mountain-summit funnish after an easy day of riding is an opportunity for some of those breakaway specialists to try and get a stage win.

Our Outright Prediction: Remco Evenepoel @ 5/1 (6.00)

The defending La Vuelta champion Remco Evenepoel is a gifted climber but has struggled on the proper mountain stages so far. Yet, he already grabbed a stage win on a similar profile earlier in the week. So, with Remco knowing that he needs to make his moves on more hilly terrain like today we expect him to be extra aggressive on the final climb. If he can shake off the Jumbo-Visma riders Remco could be looking at his second stage win of this Vuelta.

Our Each-way Prediction: Enric Mas @ 1/4 (1.25)

The Movistar leader Enric Mas has ridden well so far. He remains in the hunt for the overall win so he wouldn’t want to drop behind any of the top riders. Mas is a gifted and powerful climber and when it comes to such one-climb showdown finishes he can keep up the pace of anyone for the duration. Mas has an explosive sprint too, so we back him to secure a top 3 finish even if he can’t win the stage.

Our Dark Horse Prediction: Mikel Landa @ 40/1 (41.00)

For our dark horse to win stage 9 we pick the vastly experienced Spanish veteran Mikael Landa. Landa’s ambitions during this Vuelta are to win stages and to challenge for the poka dot jersey. He knows the final climb very well and due to that, we think if Landa is close to the lead as the riders hit the last few kilometres Landa will fancy his chances.

La Vuelta Stage 9 Odds

Now we’ve made our picks here are the odds for the top 10 favourites to win Stage 9:

Primoz Roglic 5/1 (6.00)

Jonas Vingegaard 5/1 (6.00)

Enric Mas 11/1 (12.00)

Lennard Kamna 12/1 (13.00)

Rernco Evenepoel 14/1 (15.00)

Sergio Higuita 14/1 (15.00)

Juan Ayuso 15/1 (16.00)

Sepp Kuss 20/1 (21.00)

Joao Almeida 22/1 (23.00)

Aleksandr Vlasov 22/1 (23.00)

Our first 2 picks from above are among the top 5 favourites for the stage and this only strengthens our belief that the main GC contenders will be on the hunt for a stage win and bonus seconds.

Our dark horse pick Landa is not on this list. However, if we assume that a breakaway is successful and Landa is among those riders up front watch out for him coming through and winning yet another Grand Tour stage.


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About the author

Iskra

Iskra had a promising, at least she believed so, tennis and volleyball careers as a junior but a series of injuries ended her hopes to become a professional athlete very early.

Instead, she focused all her energy on her other passion, writing. For over a decade, Iskra had been a freelance sports writer. Football, basketball and tennis are the main fields of her expertise.