CYCLING – TEAM Bahrain Victorious star Santiago Buitrago took the lead in the King of the Mountains (KOM) classification at La Vuelta a Espana yesterday after the 187.4km ninth stage.
The Colombian joined the day’s large breakaway alongside teammate Attila Valter and took maximum points on three consecutive classified climbs – Puerto de El Miserat, Puerto de Tollos, and Puerto de Tudons – collecting 18 points and moving to 29 points in the KOM ranking.
“Our objective was to get in the breakaway and fight for the stage, and I think we achieved that,” said Buitrago. “It was a very hard stage and it has been a very hard week. We managed to get into the break with Attila [Valter], who helped a lot.
“In the end, there wasn’t much collaboration in the group, so I tried to go with a few riders. Personally, I really wanted to fight for the stage. I really need a win, but having the mountains jersey now is a nice reward for the work.
“Now we’ll try to defend it as much as possible. I’m happy to reach the first rest day with this jersey, and we’ll try to defend it all the way to the end.”
Slovenian teammate Jakob Omrzel stayed in second place in the best young rider classification following yesterday’s leg.
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