photo credits @ La Vuelta
Jonas Vingegaard soared to victory in stage 13 of the Vuelta a España today, after commencing a solo attack on the Col du Tourmalet as Team Jumbo-Visma stamped their authority with a 1-2-3 stage finish.
The Dutch squad entered the stage with three riders in the top 10, all three of which became instant race favorites, while defending champion Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-Quickstep) was dropped from the lead group with 87.3 kilometers to go, eventually ceding over 27 minutes.
Jumbo-Visma’s aggression became all the more apparent as the Aubisque continued, with no breakaway allowed to truly form and Robert Gesink put to work at the head of proceedings. Their desire was to create an elite selection well in advance of the final climb, and their desires were swiftly fulfilled.
Vingegaard and Sepp Kuss joined forces with Bahrain-Victorious on the Col de Spandelles, further thinning out the peloton, and by the foot of the Col du Tourmalet, only a group of 22 riders remained.
Playing the numbers game, Vingegaard was the first to put in a major attack on the Col du Tourmalet, and his attack with 8km to go would prove fatal to the hopes of his rivals. As he developed a gap, teammates Kuss and Roglič marked the chase behind and dampened the enthusiasm of the likes of Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates) and Enric Mas (Movistar).
In the end, Vingegaard came over the line alone but was closely followed by Kuss and Roglič, both of whom took their leave from their rivals in the final kilometre of a grandstand finish to the summit of the Col du Tourmalet.
“I’m just so happy and I couldn’t choose a better day. Today is the birthday of my daughter and I wanted to win for her today,” Vingegaard revealed in an emotional post-stage interview.
“I’m just so happy and today I did it for her. Our plan was to see if we could take time on our opponents. That happened and I’m happy and proud to do it today. This is for my daughter. Going one, two, three is even better than we planned.
Race Highlights
Kuss rode the final climb with the kind of authority and strength that you would expect from the race leader. With team-mate Vingegaard attacking with 8km remaining, Kuss was under no pressure to contribute to the chase. And when his rivals had tired themselves out doing so, the 28-year-old was able to put in a stinging acceleration of his own inside the final kilometer to coax a reply from team-mate Roglic and secure the Jumbo clean sweep.
It’s no wonder Kuss was all smiles as he crossed the line before embracing the two riders he helped win the Giro and Tour earlier this year: not only had he chalked off another huge test, he had contributed to a slice of history for his all-conquering team.
Belgian youngster Cian Uijtdebroeks (Bora-hansgroge) made the largest gains on GC, the 20-year-old impressing for fifth place to rise to ninth place in his Grand Tour debut.
No stage in any Grand Tour in 2023 has included more climbing per kilometer than Stage 13 of the 78th edition of La Vuelta – and the fireworks came from the gun as Romain Bardet (Team dsm-firmenich) ushered in the crossing into his native France by riding over the Puerto de Portalet in pole position.
Bardet was reeled in and another six-man move neutralised on the long descent before the major shake-out occurred on the Col d’Aubisque as Martinez, Almeida and then Evenepoel all hit the wall. If the first two were able to recover or save face, the man in white saw his hopes of a second successive Vuelta crown go up in smoke.
No stage in any Grand Tour in 2023 has included more climbing per kilometre than Stage 13 of the 78th edition of La Vuelta – and the fireworks came from the gun as Romain Bardet (Team dsm-firmenich) ushered in the crossing into his native France by riding over the Puerto de Portalet in pole position.
Mas, last year’s runner-up, led the chase but found himself shadowed by Kuss before the third of Jumbo’s trident,Roglič, had the luxury of being dragged back into contention by Ayuso and the sprightly Uijtdebroeks. Both the Spanish and Belgian youngsters tried to fight fire with fire – but they soon had their fingers burned when Kuss, from deep, accelerated with panache to put them all to the sword.
Kuss managed to close the gap on winner Vingegaard to 30 seconds with Roglic crossing the line three seconds behind to complete the famous clean sweep on one of the sport’s most iconic climbs.
With the first Vuelta stage win of his career, Vingegaard joins team-mates Kuss and Roglic as stage winners on this year’s race.
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