Disgusting. As she had promised, as she dreamed, the Jumbo-Visma took advantage of the 13th stage to disgust all her opponents and leave her mark on this 78th Vuelta a little more. While Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-Quick Step) and Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) quickly exploded and lost all ambition in the general, the Dutch team carried out its cycling on the final climb of the Tourmalet. Going out alone 6km from the finish, Jonas Vingegaard scored the first success of his career in the event, ahead of his teammates Sepp Kuss and Primoz Roglic, for an epic hat-trick. Here are the first, second and third Jumbo-Visma overall, one minute ahead of the competition.
The Jumbo-Visma did not even need to initiate major maneuvers to stifle the competition. On the infernal profile reserved for runners between Formigal and the Tourmalet, beyond the Portalet, the Aubisque and Spandelles, it only took a short hour of racing to witness the two enormous surprises of the day: the failures of Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) – who would be ill – and especially Remco Evenepoel. If the Portuguese fought as usual to limit the damage (15th, +6’47”) and remain in the top 10 overall (10th, at 8’39”), despite more than 60km alone , the Belgian from Soudal-Quick Step completely imploded, unable even to follow the tempo of his own teammates. If his team denied an illness, the title holder completely lost his footing from Aubisque, before definitively getting back up in Spandelles (60th, +27’05”), leaving the favorites to go to war.
27 minutes after Vingegaard, the arrival of Evenepoel at the summit of Tourmalet
Kuss, more than ever a leader
A fight which took a long time to start, as the Jumbo-Visma was in control. Already on the attack in the Col de Spandelles, jumping on everything that moved, Jonas Vingegaard was again the first to attack in the Col du Tourmalet, 6km from the finish, in two stages. Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates) followed easily at first but, the second time, the Dane flew away and no one saw him again. Enric Mas (Movistar) tried twice to pursue the double winner of the Tour de France, even reducing the gap to around twenty seconds, but the 2nd in the 2022 Vuelta was taken over by Ayuso, Cian Uijtdebroeks (Bora-Hansgrohe) and the Jumbo-Visma duo Sepp Kuss-Primoz Roglic.
The double attack of Vingegaard which flies away in the Tourmalet
Unable to organize themselves, Mas, Ayuso and Uijtdebroeks did the trick of the Dutch team by spending their time rolling over each other and wearing themselves out. And the American and the Slovenian ended up taking advantage in the final by distancing their opponents, like the attack from the rear with indecent ease in the red jersey. But it was Vingegaard who won a prestigious victory at the Tourmalet, with a 30″ lead over Kuss and 33″ over Roglic. Ayuso and Uijtdebroecks finished at 38″, Mas at 40″, the only ones still able to worry the Jumbo-Visma, now alone in the world overall. Still leader, and ever closer to a first Grand Tour, Sepp Kuss now has a lead of 1’37” over Roglic and 1’44” over Vingegaard. First of the others, Juan Ayuso is already at 2’37”. A chasm, already.
Vingegaard: “A result better than expected”