Eight stages later, the 2019 Vuelta a España remains a match made of inches. The four favorites for the overall win are separated by just 27 seconds, but a day in Andorra has the potential to create a crack between them.

Stage 9 from Andorra La Vella to Cortals d'Encampment is only 94.4km, but with five passes and a total of 3,370m of climbing, this stage could be significant in terms of the final destination for the Mayo Rojo.

The jersey for the time being is on the shoulders of Nicolas Ede (Cofidis), who was in the early breakaway on Saturday's rain-soaked road to Iguarada, but the Frenchman is likely to be the race's fleeting leader. Holding onto the jersey until Monday's rest day is surely the pinnacle of his ambitions.

Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana), third at 3:01, has suggested that Nairo Quintana (Movistar) is the "virtual leader" of the race, with Pau's time trial on stage 10 looming, and Primoz Roglic (Jumbo Visma), fourth at 3:07 but is still the best positioned of the pre-race favourites to win the race. Quintana himself is in sixth place overall, 27 seconds behind Lopez, and his teammate Alejandro Valverde is in fifth, 11 seconds behind. In other words, it is all to play for.

All of this quartet showed sustained quality in the early stages of this Vuelta. Lopez was the most agile in the summit finish of the Alto de Jabalambre, now wearing red on three occasions. Valverde had a sharp finish on Mas de la Costa, while Quintana, the second stage winner, kept the pressure on eagerly for most of the climb.

Meanwhile, Roglic has not missed a beat throughout the week, and with Tuesday's time trial in sight, the Slovenian will start the second week of racing with momentum intact, unless the Lopez-Movistar duo does something on the peaks of Andorran to stop his steady progress so far

"This is the first time I've ever seen the Slovenians in a race.

"We have to take advantage of this opportunity. We have a time trial coming up on Tuesday, and riders like Roglic will certainly do better than us," Quintana said on Saturday evening.

"If we can shorten the times of our rivals, that would be great.

Besides the four who led the opening week, Rafal Mayka (Bora-Hansgrohe) will be looking to continue his solid early season form, while Pogacar, a member of UAE Team Emirates, has been a sure bet for his youth so far, but in Andorran he will face a A very different kind of challenge awaits him in Andorran.

Route

In Andorra, a postage stamp box of mountains and valleys, the road goes up and down. Crucially, stage 9 is uphill from the beginning. It starts 8km before the official start of the category 1 Col d'Ordino (8.9km, 5%). Before the real uphill begins, the riders already in contention for the finish line within the time limit could be thrown from behind.

From the 1,985-meter summit, a long descent follows, but the respite is short-lived as the tough climb to Arcalis is spared. The second climb of the day, the special category Col de la Gallina, is grueling; a year ago, Enric Mas scored a summit finish here on the final day. This time it is higher (1910m) and longer (12.2km, 8.3%) than in 2018.

After the riders summited the Galina summit with 37 km to go, three technical climbs remained. In fact, the last three climbs of the day line up to form a kind of triptych, separated by short rests.

First up was the category 2 Alto de Comella (4.2 km, 8.6%). After a short descent of only two miles or so, the road again descends to the Category 2 Alto de Engorastas (4.2 km, 8.6%). (8 km, 8.1%). A short false flat then crosses a gravel road for 3.5 km, followed by a short tunnel with no lighting. Once the riders are in the light again, the climb continues uphill to the finish line at Coastal Dunkamp (5.7km, 8.3%), which is a Category 1 purgatory. [Vuelta technical director Fernando Escartín said, "That gravel road is in pretty good shape, but it will add another twist to the entire stage, which is only three hours long.

Short but sharp

Andorra's relationship with the Vuelta is longstanding, with Alcaris, Palu, and Envalira all appearing as finishing mountains over the years.

Alejandro Valverde has won the Andorra Vuelta twice, beating Dario Frigo at the top of the Envalira in 2003 and Rodriguez in the Galina in 2012 after returning from a two-year blood doping ban. Miguel Angel Lopez had a strong run in the Galina, but had to settle for second place behind Enric Mas. [Whereas events like Jacques Ancuaille's dramatic descent of Envalira in 1964 or Jan Ullrich's solo victory in Arcalis are more memorable, the Tour de France's visits to Andorra have become almost routine. This is the third consecutive year that the Vuelta has visited Andorra, and the seventh time in the past decade.

Nevertheless, there should be little routine to the Sunday stage, much like the 2015 Vuelta's Andorra section. Designed by Andorra resident Joaquin Rodriguez, the stage has some 5,200 meters of climbing in just 138 km. In a dramatic turn of events that saw Chris Froome retire after a crash and Fabio Aru take the red jersey from Tom Dumoulin, Mikel Landa seemingly defied team orders to win.

This year's stage could see a similar battle of attrition, not only with the threat of heavy rain, but also with attacks expected right from the start; at the route presentation in December, Andorra resident and 2019 Vuelta champion Simon Yates (who will not be present this year) said the shortness of the stage suggested that the shortness of the stage would affect the approach.

"The stages in Andorra are very short, and sometimes you can give it everything when the stages are short. You have to leave something for the final," Yates said."