Tom Dumoulin wins ninth stage of Vuelta a España ahead of Chris Froome

The Dutchman Tom Dumoulin won the ninth stage of the Vuelta a España, prevailing in a punishing uphill finish to claim the overall leader’s red jersey on Sunday.

The Giant-Alpecin rider attacked in the final climb, a 4km ascent with an average gradient over 10%, and pipped Chris Froome inside the final 100 metres after the Briton had also attacked.

Team Sky’s Froome, the Tour de France champion, was second, while Spain’s Joaquim Rodríguez, riding for Katusha, was three second further back.

The Colombian Esteban Chaves (Orica-GreenEdge) was dropped in the final climb and now lies third overall, 59 seconds behind Dumoulin.

Rodríguez is second, 57 seconds off the pace, while Froome, who regained some ground he had lost two days ago, moved up to eighth, 1min 18sec behind Dumoulin after the 168.3km stage between Torrevieja and El Poble Nou de Benitatxell.

The Slovakian Peter Sagan, who won the points classification at the Tour de France, did not start the stage after he sustained deep bruises when he was knocked down by an officials’ motorbike on Saturday.

The Tinkoff-Saxo rider said: “If I had crashed alone or with another rider, I would have considered that to be part of the sport. However, being hit by a motorbike of the race organisation shouldn’t be acceptable. The safety of the riders should be an absolute priority and all vehicle drivers involved in a race must be more attentive. I really hope this incident is the start of a series of necessary changes in the way races are organised.”