Julian Dubbeld • Sunday, September 3, 2023 at 00:12
Primoz Roglic won the Vuelta on Saturday. After climbing a steep wall, the Jumbo-Visma rider was the fastest in a sprint ahead of the strong Remco Evenepoel. Sepp Kuss is the new wearer of the red jersey.
The eighth stage in the Vuelta a España was one to stay home for. In 165 kilometres, the peloton faced three second category climbs, one third category climb and the very steep Xorret de Catì (3.8 km at 11.4%) of first category in the final kilometres. The Xorret de Catì had gradients of more than twenty percent halfway through, so it was to be expected that differences between the classification riders would arise again.
Before the GC riders would attack each other on this wall, an exciting fight took place in the break of the day. This time there were no GC teams in the breakaway of thirty that broke away early in the stage. The most important names in this leading group were Bauke Mollema, Thomas De Gendt, Sylvain Moniquet, Damiano Caruso, Lennert Van Eetvelt, Andreas Kron, Rui Costa, Oier Lazkano and Romain Bardet.
Strong effort De Gendt
Of these names, De Gendt was the first to show up. With more than a hundred kilometers to go, he started a long solo that kept him alone in front for more than forty kilometers. Towards the Puerto de la Carrasqueta, De Gendt was joined by Lazkano, Javier Romo, Cristian Rodriguez and Antonio Tiberi. De Gendt then decided not to continue to allow his teammates to return to the front of the front in the chasing group.
photo: Color Vos
Not long after, the front four would be caught up again by the chasing riders in front. In the meantime it became clear that the leading group would not ride for the stage victory, as Robert Gesink did bear work for his leaders in the peloton. In twenty kilometers the lead of the breakaway dropped by about three minutes, back to two minutes.
Classification men compete for stage wins
After a drop at the front, Caruso, Kron, Lazkano and Costa were ultimately left at the foot of the Xorret de Catì, with a lead of only about thirty seconds. It was clear that a classification rider would take the win on Saturday, but who?
Red jersey wearer Lenny Martinez clearly not. The Groupama-FDJ Frenchman would drop through quite early on the final climb, putting Kuss in pole position to take over the leader’s jersey. Remco Evenepoel would hand out a first shot of the classification riders. The Belgian immediately saw three Jumbos react with Kuss, Primoz Roglic and Jonas Vingegaard, after which he quickly stopped his attempt.
photo: Color Vos
Evenepoel impresses, but Roglic wins
Kuss then ran off. The American immediately made a nice gap, but was eventually parried by Evenepoel, who had recovered very well from a lesser day on Thursday. The Belgian led almost the entire final climb with the Jumbos, Enric Mas, Joao Almeida and Juan Ayuso in his wheel.
Seven men would eventually round the top together, so that a sprint would determine who would take the stage victory. Evenepoel would eventually start the sprint, but he would eventually be passed by Roglic. It was another day of double celebration for Jumbo-Visma, as Kuss took over the leader’s jersey from Martinez.
2023-09-02 22:12:00
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