After a show of force from his Jumbo-Visma racing team, Tour de France winner Jonas Vingegaard from Denmark 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 several minutes and thus probably lost the fight for overall victory in the 78th Tour of Spain. Behind Vingegaard, his team-mates Sepp Kuss (30 seconds) and Primoz Roglic (33) crossed the finish line in second and third place in his first Vuelta day victory. The American Kuss thus defended the red jersey of the overall leader. German drivers played no role at the finish line, which is 2,115 meters high.
Evenepoel falls 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 Slovenian Roglic is now second overall, 1:37 minutes behind. Behind him follows Vingegaard (1:44), whose daughter had her birthday.
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 1587 meters.
