The gap to the peloton is looking like it may be around a minute with a few riders getting back in as the pace drops.
14 riders now lead as the chasers join up with the front.
11 riders now lead a group of 5 at 15″ with the peloton at 45″.
Part of the chase group have broken free and are joining the leaders. This may finally be the group allowed to go with 137km to go.
The first hour have seen the riders take on over 1000 metres of elevation with an average speed of 41.4kph.
This chase group has grown with Buitrago, Bruno Armirail (TVL), Stefan Kung (TUD), Embret Svestad-Bardseng (NCI) and many more joining the fun.
Movistar now hit the front with Orluis Aular taking on the point of the bunch. They look like they may even be keen to go for the stage win with Mas looking really strong in the last few days in the mountains.
Abandon
Pablo Torres (UAE Team Emirates-XRG)
The young Spaniard making his Grand Tour debut evidently struggling.
Paret-Peintre and Urko Berrade (Kern Pharma) join Fisher-Black in the chase of the leaders with a Tudor rider trying to join them.
Ben Tulett (Visma-Lease a Bike) losing contact with the peloton unfortunately after coming down in he crash with Pogačar yesterday.
150km to go
The gap is still just 34″ between the leaders and the head of the peloton as Finn Fisher-Black (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) is the latest to try and join the fun out front.
Kron leads over the Puerto de Tárbena.
1km to the top of the Puerto de Tárbena.
Valentin Paret-Peintre (Soudal-Quickstep) launching a new move with around 10 riders as Movistar and Decathlon-CMA CGM try to start controlling.
Pablo Torres another UAE rider dropped. Not great for them, but they do have Sivakov out front.
Several riders dropped in the peloton including Jay Vine (UAE Team Emirates-XRG)
The chasers have been caught again but Netcompany-Ineos launch a rider again with plenty keen to follow as Weiss is caught.
Four riders fly out of the peloton and join Buitrago including Johannessen again.
Fabian Weiss (Tudor) dropped from the lead group.
Buitrago solo off the front of the peloton trying to bridge.
Briefly looked like the peloton were happy but, despite having a rider in the break in the shape of Kron, Uno-X Mobility decided to kick things off again.
Onto the first climb of six today. The Puerto de Tárbena. The break now have 53″ on the peloton as the chasing peloton stalls slightly with the leaders still working very well.
160km to go
Into the final 100 miles and it is Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe trying to get a new group going. Primož Roglič’s team looks to have a plan today. Now 42″ up to the break as Movistar are also getting involved in the attacking, as are Decathlon-CMA CGM.
The pace in the peloton changes again due to Van Aert hitting the front. He catches the chase group and is now leading the peloton at 38″ from the leading six riders.
Finally, the break may be allowed to go. The chasers are now at 40″ behind the lead group but the peloton are now at 54″.
Lennard Kämna (Lidl-Trek) is also in the chase group.
Reuben Thompson (Lotto-Intermarché) and Ivan Cobo (Kern Pharma) in the chase gap at 34″ with the peloton at 45″. Not far away from the first climb of the day, the Puerto de Tárbena (7km at 5.4%).
The gap eases out to 35″ now but there are still plenty of attacks coming out of the peloton despite multiple teams trying to block the road.
Still only 24″ up to the leaders. They are working well together but the battling to get up the road is far from over behind as Van Aert now starts to appear near the front of the peloton.
Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe have been very keen on getting Gianni Vermeersch into the breakaway. He attacks for the second time today.
Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain Victorious) is in the chase group. He lost time on the big climbing day in Andorra but has been showing that he’s keen to get into breaks since then alongside teammate Pello Bilbao.
This has the most climbing of any stage in this year’s La Vuelta. 4940 metres of climbing.
The leading 6 have just 10″ on the chasing 5 riders with a further 10″ back to the peloton. This isn’t getting away just yet.
180km to go
Lutsenko is back with Andreas Kron (Uno-X Mobility), Pavel Sivakov (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and three others but another group made of five riders including two from UAE are coming across the gap.
The lead group grows so Lutsenko launches a move off the front and is now solo.
The lead group grows with Jack Haig (Netcompany-Ineos), Michael Gogl (Alpecin-Premier Tech) and Domen Novak (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) involved.
Alexey Lutsenko (NSN) is the other rider in the front group. Two riders from Kazakhstan, one from Norway and one from Denmark.
Tobias Johannessen (Uno-X Mobility) is also in this lead group with about 20 riders trying to bridge the gap.
Attack
First move comes off the front with Yevgeniy Fedorov (XDS-Astana) and Magnus Cort (Uno-X Mobility) go away in a group of four.
Sinuhé Fernandez (Burgos-Burpellet-BH) will wear the gold combativity number.
The start of this stage is likely going to be chaotic with UAE Team Emirates-XRG being one of the teams who will be very keen to get up the road to chase stage wins after they all lost well over 11 minutes yesterday.
Mas revealing the red jersey on the podium for the team presentation earlier…
The riders are all set and rolling at the neutral start. They have 6.4km of neutralised zone today.
Pogačar is remaining as positive as he can do after the crash with the world champion spending a few nights in Barcelona hospital.
Yesterday, Mas refused to wear the red jersey after Pogačar crashed out…
As well as the battle for red, the battle for the blue and white KOM jersey is on with a big day of points available today. Andreas Leknessund (Uno-X Mobility) leads the way ahead of green jersey holder Wout Van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) by just three points with plenty of climbs to come that will open the battle to more riders.
Today’s stage is another brutal day at La Vuelta with six classified climbs including the final climb of the Alto de Aitana which is 22km long at 5.8%. The GC will surely see another big shake-up with more riders seeing a massive opportunity to challenge for the overall title.
Hola and welcome to our live report of La Vuelta a España 2026 stage 9. The race looks very different after the events of yesterday which saw race leader Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) crash out. Now, Enric Mas (Movistar) leads the way.