photo credits @ La Vuelta
Jonas Vingegaard (Visma–Lease a Bike) had to settle for second place today, despite setting his sights on conquering L’Angliru with La Roja on his shoulders – an achievement that would have made him the first leader of the Vuelta a España to win atop the iconic ascent. Still, his overall lead was never under threat, but he was unable to distance Joao Almeida, who set the pace in the final six kilometers and dropped everyone except for the Dane.
Race Highlights
Today’s stage 13 saw a flurry of attacks from the outset, with Vingegaard’s Visma-Lease a Bike trying to control the formation of a breakaway.
However, after almost 20 kilometers of racing, 24 attackers emerged at the front, with Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) once again in the fray, as was Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain Victorious), Jefferson Cepeda (Movistar), Gianmarco Garofoli (Soudal Quick Step), Bob Jungels (Ineos Grenadiers), Rémi Cavagna (Groupama-FDJ), Joel Nicolau (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) and Nico Vinokurov (XDS Astana).
Several riders set off in pursuit, but only Ivo Oliveira (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) managed to bridge his way to the leaders at km 52.
Meanwhile, Visma-Lease a Bike continued controlling the gap, which was hovering around three and a half minutes at the bottom of the first climb of the day, the Alto de la Mozqueta.
The breakaway later exploded on the ascent, with Vinokurov, Jungels, Tiberi, Garofoli and Cepeda attacking their fellow escapees, while Pedersen succeeded in latching back on along the descent.
Pedersen collected the intermediate sprint points in La Vega, just before the group hit the base of the Alto del Cordal. Vinokurov was the first rider to crest the summit again, with Jungels and Cepeda in his wake, while Tiberi crashed on the downhill.
At the base of the final climb, UAE Team Emirates-XRG was trailing 2’20’’ behind the lead trio, which soon became a duo after Cepeda was dropped.
With 7 kilometers to go, Jungels went solo, but he was reeled in during the last 5 kilometers.
From there, Almeida set his own pace, with only Vingegaard, Sepp Kuss (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Jai Hindley (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) able to follow.
However, Kuss and Hindley were soon dropped with 4.5 kilometers to go, with Almeida continuing to set a fierce pace, with Vingegaard closely marking his move.
However, the Portuguese rider never relinquished his lead, ultimately taking his first Vuelta stage win ahead of the Dane, while Hindley completed the podium with a gap of 28’’.
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