Vuelta 2023: Primoz Roglic triumphs at the legendary Alto de L’Angliru – Sepp Kuss saves the red jersey

After Sepp Kuss, Jonas Vingegaard and Primoz Roglic initially broke away from all other riders in the classification on the climb to Alto de L’Angliru, the overall leader was no longer able to keep up with his teammates around two kilometers from the finish.

But Vingegaard and Roglic didn’t wait for their man in red, but continued to pull away. Meanwhile, Mikel Landa (Bahrain Victorious) fought his way back to Kuss. With the help of the Spaniard, the American managed to keep the gap to the Jumbo duo within limits.

While Roglic crossed the line ahead of Vingegaard and celebrated his second victory in this year’s Tour of Spain, Kuss fought for his red jersey on his 29th birthday. At the same time as Landa, he reached the finish in third place, 19 seconds behind, defending his overall lead over Vingegaard by eight seconds. Landa came fourth.

“I came here with no expectations and, as always, just wanted to help the boys. Then I came into this beautiful jersey and discovered a new level of self-confidence,” said Kuss afterwards. Vingegaard would also be happy about his colleague’s overall victory: “”It’s great that Sepp is wearing the jersey. I would like to see him win this Vuelta.”

Landa’s teammate Wout Poels came fifth (+0:44). Cian Uijtdebroeks (Bora-hansgrohe) put in a strong performance once again. The 20-year-old Belgian reached the summit in seventh place, just 1:20 minutes behind, making up 22 seconds on Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates) in the fight for the white jersey.

Remco Evenepoel played no role in the final, as he was no longer able to compete with the contenders for the overall ranking after a breakaway attempt. However, the Belgian collected important points for the mountain jersey over the course of the day.

Evenepoel, who had not been at the front when he arrived in the mountain in Bejes the day before and was apparently conserving energy, used his fresher legs shortly after the start of the stage and was heavily involved in the attacks on the day’s breakaway group. Shortly after the first leading group was caught again, the 23-year-old tried again, but this time it wasn’t enough either.

Evenepoel was successful at the third attempt. He managed to catch up with an existing top group, which ultimately included eleven riders.

While Jumbo-Visma set the pace at the back of the peloton, the breakaway group became smaller and smaller until finally only Evenepoel and teammate Mattia Cattaneo remained at the front, who together tackled the first mountain of the day, the Alto de la Colladiella. There, Evenepoel was the first to secure an important ten points.

After Cattaneo said goodbye to Evenepoel at the start of the Alto del Cordal, the defending champion then drove solo towards his second ten points. The Belgian went into the stage final with a lead of 2:20 minutes over the peloton. But with 5.5 kilometers to go, his dream of a third stage win was over.

Bahrain Victorious then took control of the group of favorites through Poels and Santiago Buitrago. A short time later, Ayuso lost touch. A little later, Enric Mas (Movistar) also had to have it demolished. As a result, the other drivers also fell behind, so that ultimately only Kuss, Vingegaard and Roglic remained, whereupon the internal fight for red began.

So Kuss goes into the 18th stage with just eight seconds ahead of Vingegaard. Roglic is third overall, 1:08 minutes behind the American.

Despite his weak phase on the final climb, Ayuso remains in fourth place (+4:00). However, the Spaniard is now 2:52 minutes behind the podium and only 16 seconds ahead of Landa (+4:16). The Bahraini professional improved by two places in the overall standings on Wednesday, pushing Mas to sixth place. Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates), who had meanwhile attacked from the peloton, lost significantly on the Angliru and fell back to 13th place in the classification (+21:56).

The new seventh overall is Cian Uijtdebroeks (+6:43) ahead of his teammate Aleksandr Vlasov (+7:38). Behind them are Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates/+9:26) and Santiago Buitrago (+11:26).

In the mountains classification everything currently looks like a coup for Remco Evenepoel. With 91 points, the Belgian has a clear lead over Vingegaard (51). Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck) also has a comfortable lead in the green jersey. The white jersey remains Ayuso, who is still well ahead of Uijtdebroeks with a lead of 2:43 minutes.