Home > News

Sepp Kuss defends his red jersey, Ganna carries the day in Vuelta time trial

Tuesday's runner-up Evenepoel puts a little time into Roglič

September 5, 2023
Share on SMS

Filippo Ganna gave another demonstration of his time trial prowess on Tuesday, winning the only individual chrono of the 78th La Vuelta Ciclista a España. Jumbo-Visma’s American Sepp Kuss did very well to keep his red jersey, holding off Marc Soler and the big favourites for the overall title. By coming second, Remco Evenepoel put 20 seconds into Primož Roglič and leads his most dangerous GC rival by 27 seconds in the table.

The Course

The lone individual time trial of the 78th Vuelta was flat and 25.8 km long, with two time checks. The start and finish was in Vallodolid.

Stefan Bissegger was an early leader with 28:58. However, Filippo Ganna cracked the Swiss rider’s best intermediate time at the first check and was almost a minute ahead at the second time check. Ineos Grenadiers’ Italian, the 2020 and 2021 world chromo champion, was 1:18 faster than Bissegger at the finish and just under 56 km/h.

He might not have won the worlds chrono title in two years, but Ganna is still a beast against the clock.

Ganna’s teammate Geraint Thomas is having a rough Vuelta, +22:00 of Kuss, and his misfortune continued with a mechanical in the middle of the course.

Primož Roglič was 10 seconds slower than Ganna at Check 1 and Vingegaard was +0:25. A little later the man in the rainbow bands, Remco Evenepoel, was 11 seconds off Ganna’s mark. Alexandr Vlasov and Joao Almeida both fought to get in the GC top-10 on Sunday’s mud-shortened stage, and they strengthened their bids to rise with fine times. Kuss defended well against his closest GC rival, Mark Soler.

At Check 2, Evenepoel was 18 seconds behind Ganna, Roglič +0:27 and Vingegaard +0:54. Roglič finished in provisional second place, 36 seconds back.

Evenepoel passed his two minute man and then clipped Roglič’s place on the day, only 16 seconds slower than Ganna. The Belgian road champion is now in third place, the Slovenian right behind him.

Almeida jumped over Vingegaard into sixth in the GC. Enric Mas tumbled to the bottom of the top-10 where Vlasov resides.

Wednesday doesn’t relent: Cat. 1 summit finish La Laguna Negra is the only categorized climb in 163 km.

78th La Vuelta Ciclista a España Stage 10
1) Filippo Ganna (Italy/Ineos) 27:39
2) Remco Evenepoel (Belgium/Soudal-QuickStep) +0:16
3) Primož Roglič (Slovenia/Jumbo-Visma) +0:36

78th La Vuelta Ciclista a España GC
1) Sepp Kuss (USA/Jumbo-Visma) 35:52:38
2) Marc Soler (Spain/UAE-Emirates) +0:26
3) Remco Evenepoel (Belgium/Soudal-QuickStep) +1:09
4) Primož Roglič (Slovenia/Jumbo-Visma) +1:36
5) Lenny Martinez (France/Groupama-FDJ) +2:02