The Jumbo-Visma team once again used the 17th stage of the Tour of Spain for a demonstration of power. At the mountain finish at the legendary Altu de L’Angliru, Primoz Roglic won ahead of his teammate Jonas Vingegaard and Sepp Kuss, the third top rider in the Dutch team.
The American Kuss saved an eight-second lead in the overall classification on his 29th birthday and remains the wearer of the red jersey. Second is the two-time Tour de France winner Vingegaard from Denmark, third is the Slovenian Roglic (+1.08 minutes behind).
On the last climb of 12.4 kilometers with sections that were over 20 percent steep, Vingegaard and Roglic pulled away from Kuss in the thick fog, with three-time Vuelta winner Roglic doing most of the leading work. Both top drivers paid no attention to their teammate, who was leading in the overall standings. Birthday boy Kuss apparently saw no problem with this. “They are two great champions, I am very happy to be able to work with them,” he said afterwards at Eurosport.
Vingegaard and Roglic assured that they would begrudge their noble assistant the overall victory at this year’s Vuelta. “Both of them are driving with a knife between their teeth and want to take every second away from him, and then they say that he should win. That’s interesting,” said ex-professional and Eurosport expert Jens Voigt. The 78th edition of the Tour of Spain ends next Sunday.