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Kuss retains Vuelta red jersey as teammate Roglič triumphs on Angliru

American clings tenaciously to race lead by eight seconds

Photo by: Sirotti
September 13, 2023
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It’s been a strange Vuelta a España, with Jumbo-Visma’s utter dominance creating weird scenes where teammates attack the red jersey. On Wednesday’s summit finish atop the dreaded Angliru, race leader Sepp Kuss watched his teammates Jonas Vingegaard and Primož Roglič climb away from him, but he kept at the top of the GC after Roglič prevailed to take a brace of stage wins. The trio still occupy the top three spots in the table and have won five stages between them.

The Course

It was time for a real beast at the Vuelta. The Angliru, 13.1 km of 9.4 percent, capped off a 124-km day that started in Ribadesella/Ribeseya. The riders would face two Cat. 1 ascents before the Angliru: Alto de la Colladiella and Alto del Cordal.

Remco Evenepoel immediately attacked with four others but they couldn’t hold it. Another breakaway had more success, and in this little gang was Evenepoel’s teammate Matteo Cattaneo. It took the KOM leader two more attempts to join the escape, and before Alto de la Colladiella there was a fugitive group of 11 up the road. This bunch was whittled down by the grades. Evenepoel added more points atop Colladiella and carried on with Cattaneo at the business end of the race, tipping over Alto del Cordal first as well.

Both Jumbo-Visma and Bahrain-Victorious pulled the peloton towards the dreaded Angliru.

Evenepoel carried on solo up the most notorious Vuelta mountain. Behind, sixth place Mark Soler, who had tried to bridge, was dropped by the shrinking red jersey group. Evenepoel wouldn’t have his day, however, as he was pinned back with 5.5 km to climb. One by one, the top-10 guys dropped away: Enric Mas, Juan Ayuso, Joao Almeida. With 3 km to the finish, it was Kuss, Vingegaard, Roglič, Mikel Landa and Wout Poels in front.

Roglič hit the afterburners with 2.7 km remaining. Landa and then Kuss went along. Landa couldn’t hang, but Vingegaard went across. It was the Trident that Movistar always wished for.

Then with 2 km remaining, Kuss dropped away and rode with Landa. Going into the last kilometre, Kuss was 24 seconds behind his fellow Dutch Bees. By the time he crossed the line, he was only 19 seconds down and kept the red jersey.

Thursday relents just a little, with a Cat. 1 summit finish atop La Cruz de Linares.

78th La Vuelta Ciclista a España Stage 17
1) Primož Roglič (Slovenia/Jumbo-Visma) +3:15:56
2) Jonas Vingegaard (Denmark/Jumbo-Visma) s.t.
3) Sepp Kuss (USA/Jumbo-Visma) +0:19

78th La Vuelta Ciclista a España GC
1) Sepp Kuss (USA/Jumbo-Visma) 60:34:21
2) Jonas Vingegaard (Denmark/Jumbo-Visma) +0:08
3) Primož Roglič (Slovenia/Jumbo-Visma) +1:08