Denmark’s Jonas Vingegaard and his Jumbo-Visma teammates crushed their rivals on the 13th stage of the Vuelta a España on Friday, as the two-time Tour de France champion led the team’s podium sweep on the legendary Col du Tourmalet.
Climber Vingegaard, who attacked with six kilometers to go, won the demanding mountainous day ahead of his teammate, American leader Sepp Kuss. Slovenian Primoz Roglic entered third to close the sweep of the Dutch squad.
Vingegaard won the stage that began in Spain and crossed the Pyrenees in France after escaping on the final climb that is known as the classic finish of the Vuelta — a race that the Dane has won the last two years.
Vingegaard’s teammates Sepp Kuss and Primoz Roglic also broke away as the last few riders tried to keep up with them, completing an impressive performance for the Dutch team.
Kuss, the first American to lead a Grand Tour since 2013, kept the red leader’s jersey. Roglic, who won the Vuelta editions between 2019 and 2021, finished third.
With this result Roglic placed second in the general classification, one minute and 37 seconds behind Kuss. Vingegaard is third 1:44 behind.
There are still eight stages of the Vuelta to go, with some tricky mountain routes before the competition ends in Madrid on September 17.
Jumbo-Visma’s closest rival is Juan Ayuso of UAE Team Emirates 2:37 minutes behind. Enric Mas from Movistar is 3:06 away.
Vingegaard dedicated the victory to his daughter, who celebrated his birthday this Friday. “I couldn’t have chosen a better day, today is my daughter’s birthday,” said Vingegaard. “Our plan was to see if we could increase the time on our rivals a little. “I am very proud of my daughter.”
Remco Evenepoel took another blow in his attempt to defend his Vuelta title when the Belgian broke down on the first of the day’s three big climbs on the Col d’ Aubisque. Evenepoel started the day third in the standings, one minute behind Kuss. He finished Friday 28 minutes behind.
The best Latin rider in the segment in the legendary French port was Santiago Buitrago from Bogotá (Bahrain – Victorious) in box 13, more than 5 minutes behind the winner. While Einer Rubio (Movistar Team) entered in 20th place with a delay of more than 8 minutes.
The Spanish round will continue this Saturday with the dispute of stage 14, another section full of climbs with 156.2 kilometers of route between Sauveterre-de-Béarn and the mountain station of Larra-Belagua.