Tour de France winner Jonas Vingegaard won the queen stage of the Tour of Spain up to the Col du Tourmalet on Friday (September 8th, 2023). Teammate Sepp Kuss defended his lead in the overall classification in the 13th stage and, coming second in the stage, completed the superior performance of the Jumbo-Visma team.
The previous third overall, Remco Evenepoel from the Soudal Quick-Step team, lost several minutes on Friday and thus probably lost the fight for overall victory in the 78th Tour of Spain.
Behind Vingegaard in his first Vuelta day victory, his teammates Sepp Kuss (+30 seconds) and Primoz Roglic (+33) crossed the finish line in second and third place. The American Kuss defended the red jersey of the overall leader. German drivers played no role at the 2,115 meter high finish.
Last year’s winner Evenepoel far behind
Belgium’s star Evenepoel had a very bitter day, falling out of the top field long before the final climb and thus probably wasting all chances of his second overall victory at the Vuelta after 2022. The previous sixth overall, João Almeida from the Emirates team, also had to drop out early. Marc Soler (Emirates), Kuss’ closest pursuer in the overall classification so far, lost sight of the top riders on the final climb. The new overall second place is now the Slovenian Primoz Roglic, 1:37 minutes behind. Behind him is Vingegaard (+1:44), whose daughter had her birthday on Friday.
The next difficult mountain stage follows on Saturday (September 9th, 2023). It goes over 156.5 kilometers in the border region between Spain and France from Sauveterre-de-Béarn to Puerto de Belagua. The first 50 kilometers are flat before the professionals have to climb over four mountains in the next 100. The Col Hourcére and Puerto de Larrau are in the most difficult category. The final climb has an average gradient of 6.3 percent over a length of 9.5 kilometers. On the steepest ramps the gradient is ten percent, the finish is at an altitude of 1,587 meters.