Primoz Roglic wins Stage 8 of Vuelta a Espana as Jumbo-Visma team-mate Sepp Kuss moves into race lead

Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) collected the 11th Vuelta a Espana stage win of his career and his first of the 2023 event as the Slovenian beat Remco Evenepoel (Soudal - Quick Step) and Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates) to the line.

Roglic’s team-mate Sepp Kuss came home in seventh to move into the red jersey.

A stage that had all the makings of a convoluted classic proved in the end to be a straightforward matter of breakaway versus bunch - with the peloton ultimately coming out on top.

After a calm first few kilometres on the steady level road out of Denia, the storm of attacks started when the peloton arrived at the first climb of the day - of any kind - the Alto de Vall d’Ebo.

One of the men who spent most of Stage 7 up the road was the most motivated to make something of the early miles. Jesus Herrada (Cofidis) stole a march on the rest to take the five KOM points available and announce his campaign for the mountains jersey.

A 30-strong breakaway, containing no major threats and representatives from all but four teams, settled into as much of a rhythm as a group that large could hope to. Herrada pressed on in search of more points, taking another small step forward on the third category Puerto de Tollos.

Watching Herrada’s wheel was stage hunting supremo, Thomas De Gendt, who took two points for himself and set out on a solo expedition, just 50km into the stage.

De Gendt has pulled off long, lone attacks before, but on this occasion there was never any real hope that he would, or even that it was his intention. And so it proved, as De Gendt’s effort ensured there would be no expectation that any of his three team-mates in the group behind would work.

The Belgian’s solo day out lasted for 34km, just past the summit of the next classified climb, which had served to cause fractures in the larger group of escapees. Across to De Gendt came Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain Victorious), Javier Romo (Astana Qazaqstan), Cristian Rodriguez (Arkea Samsic), Rui Costa (Intermarche Circus Wanty) and Oier Lazkano (Movistar). After De Gendt dropped back to help a second group containing his team-mate Andreas Kron, before taking his foot off the gas completely, there were eight riders at the front of the race with a lead of around four minutes over the peloton.

With 65km left on the stage, Jumbo Visma proceeded to take over from Groupama-FDJ's youngsters on the front of the bunch and add real power to the chase.

After briefly becoming one large breakaway again, the penultimate climb of the day broke it apart for the final time, with another Lotto Dstny rider, Sylvain Moniquet, attacking over the top and a small selection going with him.

That was as good as it got for the break, as once Jumbo-Visma set their sights on a goal, they seldom fail to see it through. Steadily their riders chipped away at the leaders’ advantage. By the foot of the final climb, the short but eye-wateringly steep Xorret de Cati, four riders held barely a handful of seconds' advantage.

Four quickly became two, when Damiano Caruso (Bahrain Victorious) and Kron leaving just Lazkano and veteran Rui Costa up the road.

As the road reared up, they too were finished off. As the steepest slopes of the Xorret de Cati began to bite it was one race again, between three Jumbo-Visma riders, three from UAE Emirates, Enric Mas (Movistar) and Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-Quickstep). Evenepoel was determined to foil Jumbo’s plan and hit the front himself, making it too hard for anyone to attack - not without taking significant risk.

Sepp Kuss did accelerate away on the higher gradients, but it was not a full-gas effort and Evenepoel gradually reeled the American back in. There was nothing separating them over the summit, or on the descent, and so it came down to the final sprint for the line.

Evenepoel watched his rivals carefully, latching onto the wheel of Primoz Roglic as the Slovenian came round him and stayed there to seal his 11th Vuelta stage win. Lenny Martinez (Groupama FDJ) hung on for as long as possible, but lost the race lead to Kuss after coming in a minute behind the leaders.

Despite snatching the victory, and installing a rider in the race lead, these might be seen to be more symbolic than significant. The expectation was the team would try to crack Evenepoel on the final climb but the Belgian showed not a hint of weakness, even on slopes that suited others better.

Symbols can have real significance however, and Roglic was in a more than spirited and celebratory mood than usual after a win.

Asked how many leaders Jumbo-Visma now had, the Slovenia replied, “At least three now, no? But maybe still someone coming.”

Evenepoel, for his part, looked less than happy at having to settle for second. Eurosport’s Adam Blythe wasn’t buying it.

“For me, he will be disappointed but there is a little bit of acting in there,” Blythe said.

The result saw a slight change in the battle of the general classification favourites with Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) dropping behind Roglic. The Jumbo pair are sat in seventh and eighth with Evenepoel in sixth.

Evenepoel is 2’31” in arrears of Kuss in the battle for red.

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