The third main classification at the Vuelta a Espana, the King of the Mountains contest is slowly starting to burst into life itself.
Lluis Mas (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) leads the way, narrowly holding off stage nine victor, Winner Anacona (Lampre-Merida).
With plenty more summit finishes to come, however, including the ascent to Lake Covadonga, the polka dot jersey is likely to start changing hands once the road racing resumes.
Mas’ lead – which he fought to protect in the break on stage nine – certainly looks a slender one with Alejandro Valverde, on the back of his stage six win, just ten points back without having fought for the jersey.
In Mas’ favour is the fact the points at the summit finishes could well be shared out between the likes of Valverde, Froome, Contador, Quintana and Rodriguez.
With Anacona in form, however, he will be another to watch out for – if his stage nine exploits cost him, and he loses time overall again, Lampre-Merida will not want to be leaving empty-handed a race they had originally hoped to field the defending champion, Chris Horner, in.
With both Valverde and Anacona having earned a mountain-top stage win already, they will be two to look out for in the race for the polka dot jersey.
However, there is plenty more to play for yet and the true contenders will start to show over the next eight days of racing.
Vuelta a Espana 2014: mountains classification after stage nine
1) Lluis Mas (ESP) – Caja Rural-Seguros RGA – 20pts
2) Winner Anacona (COL) – Lampre-Merida – 18pts
3) Jerome Cousin (FRA) – Team Europcar – 13pts
4) Alejandro Valverde (ESP) – Movistar – 10pts
5) Johann Tschopp (SUI) – IAM Cycling – 8pts
6) Javi Moreno (ESP) – Movistar – 7pts
7) Amets Txurruka (ESP) – Caja Rural-Seguros RGA – 7pts
8) Chris Froome (GBR) – Team Sky – 6pts
9) Danilo Wyss (SUI) – BMC Racing – 6pts
10) Alexey Lutsenko (KAZ) – Astana – 6pts
