Van Eetvelt (Lotto-Dstny) and Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) provide explanations for their poor performances on Sunday

Day nine of the Vuelta a España was a tough one. For example, Adam Yates and Richard Carapaz performed very well, while Primoz Roglic showed the first signs of weakness. Riders like Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) and Lennert Van Eetvelt, who had regularly been among the best performers earlier in the Vuelta, also lost a lot of time on Sunday afternoon.

"From the start I knew that it wasn't going to be my day," Van Eetvelt explained afterward to Het Nieuwsblad. "I fought against myself, and I'm happy about that. I really couldn't do more. For a moment, I thought it was going to be an extremely bad day, but I wasn't the only one who suffered, especially due to the extreme heat."

For the 23-year-old Flemish rider, this naturally begs the question: now what? "I'm looking forward to the rest day, and I hope I can regain my form from the first days. There are still many tough stages to come," he said, remaining full of ambition and confidence. "It is what it is. I've done my best, and I really can't do more. If the others are better, then so be it. I'm no longer thinking about the white jersey, but I still intend to move up a few places in the general classification."

Skjelmose, also 23 years old, had a rough day in Andalusia as well. "My legs were hurting. It was a tough, hot day," he explained afterward to Danish TV 2 Sport. The leader of Lidl-Trek sensed early on that it wouldn't be a good day for him on the bike. He was therefore not surprised by the time loss. "I felt really bad up to the first climb when the race started to break open. I think others were struggling too at that point. But on the next climb, I knew I would be dropped right from the start."