Sepp Kuss used the rare chance in the limelight, Jonas Vingegaard and Primoz Roglic sped away from their great rival Remco Evenepoel. The stars of the top team Jumbo-Visma showed their strengths at the Vuelta in Spain and inflicted a first defeat on defending champion Evenepoel.
The American Kuss, who played an important part in the tour victories of Vingegaard (Tour de France) and Roglic (Giro d’Italia) this year, won on Thursday (08/31/23) after 183.1 km in the mountain finish at the Javalambre Observatory. “It was an incredibly tough stage” said kiss, “winning a stage is incredible. I will enjoy it.“
Kiss misses Red by eight seconds
Kuss narrowly missed out on the red jersey for the overall leader. The gap to the 20-year-old Frenchman Lenny Martinez (Groupama-FDJ) is only eight seconds. Vingegaard and Roglic landed a points victory, reducing their gap to the previous leader Evenepoel to five and eleven seconds.
Buchmann and Kämna with a kiss in the breakaway group
Kuss won out of a strong breakaway group that also included the German Bora-hansgrohe riders Emanuel Buchmann and Lennard Kämna. In the final climb, Kämna lost contact seven kilometers before the finish, the German champion Buchmann had to let go three kilometers later. Buchmann took 17th place as the best German.
A sprint finish is expected on Friday on the 200.8km seventh stage from Utiel to Oliva.