Vuelta 2023: Wout Poels beats Remco Evenepoel on classic stage – Sepp Kuss defends red jersey

While there was a fierce fight for victory in the large leading group, which now consisted of 31 riders, there was largely a truce in the peloton. Jumbo-Visma had little problem defending Sepp Kuss’ red jersey and the three-fold lead in the overall standings.

There was a lot of movement in the peloton in the final phase, so that on the last climb around twelve kilometers many riders fell behind until only the top stars around Kuss, Roglic, Ayuso and Co. remained. But Jumbo’s dominance was never threatened.

Kuss, Primoz Roglic and Jonas Vingegaard even had time to cross the finish line arm in arm and properly celebrate the upcoming triple victory in the overall standings. “I’m really relieved now. It’s almost done now. The scenario was perfect for us and we had the stage under control. Robert Gesink and Dylan van Baarle set the pace all day today. And there was Attila Valter on the last climb by my side and Primoz and Jonas also helped me at the end,” said Kuss after the race, thanking his teammates for the support.

Reaching the finish alongside Roglic and Vingegaard was “a special moment,” said Kuss. “You can’t dream of something like that. Celebrating it with Primoz and Jonas is very cool. The emotions with the family were very special,” added the American.

The fight for the day’s victory was much more hectic. On the last climb, the large leading group, which now included 31 riders, fell apart completely until only a group of five remained. Wout Poels opened the sprint with a courageous attack and immediately broke away from his fellow competitors. In the last few meters Remco Evenepoel stormed up again, but the 23-year-old couldn’t get past Poels.

For Poels it was the first victory in the Tour of Spain after he had already finished third on the 16th stage in Bejes and fifth on the Angliru. Evenepoel, on the other hand, narrowly missed his fourth success at this Vuelta. The Belgian had previously triumphed on the 3rd, 14th and 18th stages.

Behind him, Pelayo Sanchez (Burgos-BH/+0:00) secured third place ahead of the Belgian Lennert van Eetvelt (Lotto-Dstny/+0:00). Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates) clearly lagged behind in the sprint and came fifth, four seconds behind. At least he improved to 13th place in the overall ranking thanks to his breakaway.

Evenepoel, who lost over 27 minutes due to his collapse on the queen stage to the Col du Tourmalet and thus had to bury his dream of defending his title in the second week of the Vuelta, gained another position and will finish the tour in twelfth place overall.

For a long time Lennard Kämna (Bora-hansgrohe) was also in the lead in the breakaway group, but on the last climb he was no longer able to keep up. He finished eighth, 26 seconds behind. Kämna’s teammate Ben Zwiehoff was also in the top group of the day, but he also had to drop out in the final phase. The 29-year-old finished the section in 23rd place (+7:51).

As is well known, the breakaway group no longer had a major impact on the top places in the overall standings. Since there are traditionally no more attacks on the flat final stage to Madrid, as in the Tour de France, Sepp Kuss is practically confirmed as the overall winner of the 78th Vuelta a España. Teammate Vingegaard came second overall (+0:17) ahead of Roglic (+1:08). Only a fall or another major mishap could prevent Jumbo’s triple victory.

Behind him, Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates/+3:44) finished his home tour in fourth place and thus secured the white jersey as the best young professional. With Mikel Landa (Bahrain Victorious/+4:03) in fifth place and Enric Mas (Movistar/+4:14) in sixth place, two more Spaniards end up in the top six.

There was a small change in positions seven and eight. There the two Bora-hansgrohe drivers Aleksandr Vlasov (+8:19) and Cian Uijdtebroeks (+8:26) swapped places. Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates/+10:08) and Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain Victorious/+12.04) complete the top ten. The best German is Emanuel Buchmann (Bora-hansgrohe/+59:02) in 21st place.

Evenepoel was already confirmed as the winner of the mountain classification before the 20th stage. The fight for the green jersey has not yet been mathematically decided, but since the last section is a sprint stage, the points classification will probably go to Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck). The Australian has 245 points in his account before the final day and is 19 points ahead of Evenepoel, who is unlikely to score points in Madrid. Unsurprisingly, Jumbo-Visma is ahead in the team rankings.

The final of the Tour of Spain takes place on Sunday in Madrid. The 21st stage leads over 101.1 kilometers from the Hipódromo de la Zarzuela into the middle of the Spanish capital. The last 52 kilometers are completed on a circuit in the heart of Madrid. Traditionally, the decision about the stage win in the mass sprint is made there.