Vuelta a Espana 2023: Jesus Herrada takes Stage 11 and polka dots, Sepp Kuss keeps red despite late Remco Evenepoel dig

ByFelix Lowe

Updated 07/09/2023 at 12:03 GMT

Spain’s Jesus Herrada secured the polka dot jersey with a fine breakaway win in Stage 11 of La Vuelta as Geraint Thomas put in a brave bid to turn his fortunes around. Welshman Thomas was part of a 26-man move alongside Ineos Grenadiers team-mate Filippo Ganna, but could only take fifth place on the steep final climb to La Laguna Negra. Sepp Kuss retained the red jersey.

The Cofidis Grand Tour revival continued as their veteran Spanish climber Jesus Herrada pulled off a double coup on Stage 11 of the Vuelta a Espana – riding clear of the breakaway on the final climb to La Laguna Negra to secure both a fine victory and the polka dot jersey.

Herrada proved the strongest of a large 26-man breakaway that also included Welshman Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) and his indefatigable team-mate Filippo Ganna – less than 24 hours after the Italian powerhouse won the individual time trial in pulsating fashion.

While Ganna blew the breakaway to smithereens with his hefty tempo going on the final 6.5km climb, Thomas – the 2018 Tour de France champion and 2023 Giro d’Italia runner-up – was unable to make it two wins in as many days for Ineos Grenadiers, the 37-year-old fading to fifth place.

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With his decisive attack inside the final kilometre, Herrada reeled in Ecuador’s Jonathan Caicedo (EF Education-EasyPost) and then held Frenchman Romain Gregoire (Groupama-FDJ) and Norway’s Andreas Kron (Lotto Dstny) at bay to take the third Vuelta stage victory of his career.

Herrada also pocketed the 10 points on the summit of the Cat.1 climb to see him move one point clear of Argentina’s Eduardo Sepulveda (Lotto Dstny) in the king of the mountains standings. It followed dual wins on the Tour de France for Cofidis riders Victor Lafay and Ion Izagirre to end a 15-year drought on the world’s biggest bike race.

With Vuelta wins from 2019 and 2022 on his palmares, Herrada was always going to be one of the favourites from a group that also included compatriot Luis Leon Sanchez (Astana-Qazaqstan), Stage 2 winner Kron, and three riders apiece from French teams Groupama-FDJ and AG2R-Citroen.

• Vuelta a Espana 2023 Stage 11 recap: Herrada snares win and polka dots

'That was superb!' - Herrada powers to win Stage 11 at Vuelta

But the presence of the in-form Ganna alongside fallen GC giant Thomas appeared to give the edge to Ineos, with the latter looking to turn his fortunes around after his latest setback in a race peppered with mishaps – a slipped chain during Tuesday’s time trial, which saw him drop to over 13 minutes in arrears in the standings.

Ganna’s long pull on the final climb whittled the break down to nine riders and neutralised an early skirmish from Frenchman Paul Ourselin (TotalEnergies). But once Caicedo put in the second of his two digs on the steepest 14% gradient near the top, Thomas did not have the legs to follow Herrada when the 33-year-old kicked clear in pursuit of stage glory and the polka dot jersey.

“Me and Pippo is a good combination but I said to him halfway round that I wasn’t feeling great,” Thomas said after crossing the line 19 seconds down in fifth.

Thomas 'had no gas at the end' to challenge for Stage 11 win

“I’m not sure if the car thought I was being nervous or not confident, but I was being honest. They tried geeing me up – and Pippo really did his best for me, and I appreciated that.

"I’m just disappointed that I couldn’t finish it off. I felt that I had no real gas at the end. I was a bit limited, but we gave everything and that’s what we had on the day.”

A fast and furious start to the 163.5km stage from Lerma in central Spain saw wave after wave of attacks neutralised in an opening hour that saw the riders chalk off the best part of 50km over some lumpy roads in the sun. When a move finally stuck with around 105km remaining, Ganna was at the heart of the engine room that saw the gap swell to almost six minutes.

“Seeing Pippo at the start reminded me of [Wout] van Aert on the Tour – he was going and the bunch was splitting in the wind,” Thomas said. “He’s got so much gas. He’s going well and it was great to have him there. But the final climb was too steep. I couldn’t quite finish it off but we’ll keep trying.”

Ineos Grenadiers duo Filippo Ganna and Geraint Thomas in the breakaway during stage 11 of the Vuelta a Espana 2023

Image credit: Getty Images

On a day of attrition for the GC favourites, the main peloton was led home by Dutchman Wilco Kelderman (Jumbo-Visma) almost six minutes in arrears. Despite a late, late kick from Belgium’s Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep), the American Sepp Kuss (Jumbo-Visma) was able to latch onto the defending champion’s wheel to retain the red jersey with the same time gaps on the rest of the top 10.

While Thomas rises a few places to 18th in the standings, Kuss stays 26 seconds clear of Spain’s Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates), with Evenepoel in third at 1:09 and Slovenia’s Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) fourth at 1:36.

After a day for the sprinters at Zaragoza on Thursday, the battle for red should reignite on Friday with the summit showdown on the legendary Col du Tourmalet in Stage 13.

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Stream the 2023 Vuelta a Espana live and on-demand on discovery+ and eurosport.com

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