Jonas Vingegaard tamed the Tourmalet to win stage 13 of the Vuelta a Espana, on a dramatic day which saw last year’s winner Remco Evenepoel’s challenge wither in the Pyrenees on Friday.
The stage, which began in Formigal and ended at the iconic Col du Tourmalet, featured three other climbs before the final ascent to the finish. The relentless climbing and downhill racing took its toll on many, including last year’s winner Evenepoel, who now finds himself out of contention.
It was the Jumbo-Visma which controlled the stage, with Sepp Kuss in the red jersey, Primoz Roglic and Vingegaard all in the leading group on the final climb, before Vingegaard made his telling break eight kilometres from the finish.
“I’m just so happy and I couldn’t choose a better day; today is my daughter’s birthday and I wanted to win for her so badly today,” Vingegaard said. “Our plan was to see if we could take some time on our opponents today. That happened and I’m just so proud to do it today and do it for my daughter.”
A smiling Kuss held onto the leader’s red jersey with a brave ride to finish runner-up ahead of Roglic in a Jumbo-Visma 1-2-3.
“I’ve done the Tourmalet a few times, and it’s quite long, but to be honest, it’s a bit overhyped,” Kuss had said on Thursday, and the American looked comfortable throughout.
On the second climb to Col d’Aubisque, both Evenepoel and Joao Almeida were dropped. By the time they hit the next ascent, Evenepoel was over two minutes adrift of the leaders, and it only got worse from there.
At the start of the stage, Kuss had a 26-second lead over Marc Soler but Roglic is now in second place, one minute 37 seconds behind with Vingegaard just seven seconds further adrift in third place.
After his win, Vingegaard, who now has the best climber’s polka dot jersey, was asked whether the 1-2-3 finish had been Jumbo-Visma’s plan for the stage.
“That’s even better than the plan,” the Dane replied.
For Evenepoel, this year’s Vuelta challenge is already over. The Belgian trailed in over 27 minutes behind the stage winner.
Saturday’s stage 14 is another mountain stage, a 156.5 kilometre ride from Sauveterre-de-Bearn to Larra-Belagua.
⚔️ A battle unfolds in the Pyrenees.
? An exhibition from Jumbo-Visma, 1-2-3 on stage & GC.
? Remco drops out of the GC fight.?️ Re-live the MOVIE from stage 1⃣3⃣!
#LaVuelta23 pic.twitter.com/9vccmZ1e0Z— La Vuelta (@lavuelta) September 8, 2023
