Mitchelton-Scott's Esteban Chaves suffered mechanical problems on Sunday's stage 9 and was forced to borrow a bike from a taller teammate and chase him to the main contender's group, which considerably reduced his chances of deciding the overall classification at the Vuelta a España. The chances of an overall classification decision at the Vuelta a España were considerably reduced.

Chaves lost four minutes to the race's main contenders and is now nearly seven minutes behind race leader Nairo Quintana (Movistar).

Chaves ran into trouble on the Col de la Gallina climb, but his Australian teammate Damien Howson handed his bike to his teammate and kept climbing. However, Howson's 1.88-meter tall saddle was too high for the 1.64-meter tall climber, and Chavez was forced to switch to Tsgab Gurumayi's bike.

The lost time to switch bikes forced Chavez to make a high-speed chase across the Galina summit and down the other side with the other main competitors. With the help of Nick Schultz, Grumey, and Howson, he was able to make contact again on the Alto de la Comella with just over 20 km remaining in the short 94.4 km stage, but the chase effort was cut short when Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana) attacked on the climb to the finish, Chaves was unable to keep up with the duo of Primoš Roglic (Jumbo Visma) and Movistar's Quintana and Alejandro Valverde, leaving the GC winner with a four-minute gap.

"I rode really, really fast and it was a really hard day for me. I had to change bikes twice on the Galina climb.

"After that I just tried to ride at my own pace until the finish. They started attacking on the Comella, but I couldn't keep up. I used up too much energy before that, so I tried to ride as smart as I could.

Chaves' teammate Mikel Nieve was just outside the top 10 in 11th place, 5:19 behind Quintana.

"This is the reality," he said. We're going to keep trying, keep going, and enjoy this, like we always do."

Sports Director Julian Dean added: "We've got a lot of people who are committed to the plan. They were all committed to the plan and took the right actions at the right time. They knew Esteban was the leader and they did everything they could.

"But the energy Esteban expended to get back into the winning group was just too much. Mikel rode well and it's good that he feels comfortable in the pack."

"They [Nieve and Chavez] are still in the race and what happened to us today could have happened to anyone on any other day of this race.