Kiss the hand: Vingegaard makes up ground with a stage win
Photo:
APA/dpa
NAfter a show of force from his Jumbo-Visma racing team, Tour de France winner Jonas Vingegaard won the 13th stage of the Vuelta at the legendary Col du Tourmalet. The previous third overall, Remco Evenepoel from the Soudal Quick-Step team, lost a lot of time on Friday and with it the fight for overall victory in the 78th Tour of Spain. Behind Vingegaard, 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. Belgium’s star Evenepoel, on the other hand, 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 Vuelta victory. 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 Slovenian Roglic is now second overall, 1:37 minutes behind. Behind him is Vingegaard (+1:44), whose daughter had her birthday on Friday. It was the Dane’s first Vuelta day victory.
The next difficult mountain stage follows on Saturday. 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 10 percent, the finish is at an altitude of 1,587 meters.
