Vuelta a Espana 2023: Jonas Vingegaard leads home Jumbo-Visma clean sweep on Tourmalet as Remco Evenepoel cracks
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Updated 08/09/2023 at 18:27 GMT
Jumbo-Visma dominated on the Col du Tourmalet with Jonas Vingegaard bringing home an historic one-two-three ahead of race leader Sepp Kuss and Primoz Roglic. All three of the Jumbo-Visma riders now occupy the podium positions in the general classification after defending champion Remco Evenepoel plummeted out of the top 10 after cracking on the Col d’Aubisque.
Highlights from Stage 13 of Vuelta as Vingegaard leads home Jumbo 1-2-3, Remco cracks
On a day the Vuelta a Espana crossed over the border to tackle one of the most iconic French climbs in the Pyrenees, it was fitting that the victory – and an emphatic one, at that – went to the man who has won the last two editions of the Tour de France.
Denmark’s Jonas Vingegaard surged up the legendary Col du Tourmalet to snare the first Vuelta stage win of his career on his daughter’s birthday – a triumph capped by his Jumbo-Visma team-mates Sepp Kuss and Primoz Roglic kicking clear of the chase group to take second and third place in a spell-binding finale to Stage 13.
After a clean-sweep in the queen stage of the race, Jumbo-Visma now occupy the top three spots in the general classification with the American Kuss 1’37” clear of Slovenia’s Roglic and 1’44” ahead of Vingegaard, the new polka dot jersey.
Jumbo-Visma’s push to win all three of cycling’s Grand Tours in the same season – perhaps with three different riders – was also dealt a huge boost by the implosion of defending champion Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep). The Belgian was distanced on the Col d’Aubisque, the second of four climbs in the savage 135km stage, and eventually crossed the line over 27 minutes in arrears to drop from fourth to 19th in the standings.
Spaniards Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates) and Enric Mas (Movistar) now occupy the remaining two spots in the top five after compatriot Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates) struggled on the final climb and Frenchman Lenny Martinez (Groupama-FDJ) endured the toughest day of his Grand Tour debut. But with Ayuso 2’37” behind Kuss, it will be a tall order for the 20-year-old to break down the Jumbo stranglehold on this race.
Soler drops from second to sixth on GC while Martinez fell nine places to 14th. Portugal’s Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) was also distanced on the Aubisque and spent the remainder of the stage in a battle to limit his losses. He fell four places to 10th but now lies almost nine minutes behind Kuss, for whom the unlikely prospect of riding into Madrid in red is getting better by the day.
Kuss rode the final climb with the kind of authority and strength that you would expect from the race leader. With team-mate Vingegaard attacking with 8km remaining, Kuss was under no pressure to contribute to the chase. And when his rivals had tired themselves out doing so, the 28-year-old was able to put in a stinging acceleration of his own inside the final kilometre to coax a reply from team-mate Roglic and secure the Jumbo clean sweep.
It's no wonder Kuss was all smiles as he crossed the line before embracing the two riders he helped win the Giro and Tour earlier this year: not only had he chalked off another huge test, he had contributed to a slice of history for his all-conquering team.
Belgian youngster Cian Uijtdebroeks (Bora-hansgroge) made the largest gains on GC, the 20-year-old impressing for fifth place to rise to ninth place in his Grand Tour debut.
No stage in any Grand Tour in 2023 has included more climbing per kilometre than Stage 13 of the 78th edition of La Vuelta – and the fireworks came from the gun as Romain Bardet (Team dsm-firmenich) heralded the crossing into his native France by riding over the Puerto de Portalet in pole position.
Bardet was reeled in and another six-man move then neutralised on the long descent before the major shake-out occurred on the Col d’Aubisque as Martinez, Almeida and then Evenepoel all hit the wall. If the first two were able to recover or save face, the man in white saw his hopes of a second successive Vuelta crown go up in smoke.
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'Challenge sunk' - Watch as Evenepoel cracks early on Stage 13
Surrounded by four QuickStep team-mates, Evenepoel was already two minutes down by the time Australia’s Michael Storer (Groupama-FDJ) went over the top to pocket the KOM points. Although pegged back by the red jersey group, Storer would do the same over the summit of the Col de Spandelles to move into the virtual polka dot jersey on the road.
This followed an intriguing moment of the stage when Vingegaard and Kuss combined with Bahrain Victorious duo Damiano Caruso and Antonio Tiberi in a quartet that opened up a sizable gap on the descent of the Aubisque.
Once order was restored following the Spandelles, Jumbo-Visma sent their Dutch heavies to the front with Robert Gesink and Wilco Kelderman tapping out tempo on the nose of a 22-man leading group ahead of the Tourmalet.
After a long shift the Dutch duo dropped back and the leading group was soon reduced to around a dozen riders. Vingegaard then made his move with an initial softener followed by a decisive dig for which no-one had the answer.
Mas, last year’s runner-up, led the chase but found himself shadowed by Kuss before the third prong of Jumbo’s trident, Roglic, the triple Vuelta winner and current Giro champion, had the luxury of being dragged back into contention by Ayuso and the sprightly Uijtdebroeks. Both the Spanish and Belgian youngsters tried to fight fire with fire – but they soon had their fingers burned when Kuss, from deep, accelerated with panache to put them all to the sword.
Kuss managed to close the gap on winner Vingegaard to 30 seconds with Roglic crossing the line three seconds behind to complete the famous clean sweep on one of the sport’s most iconic climbs. It was a show of dominance unmatched by anything seen even during Team Sky's lengthy rule at the top.
With the first Vuelta stage win of his career, Vingegaard joined team-mates Kuss and Roglic as a stage winner on this year’s race.
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'Riders are human' - Reaction to Vingegaard emotions after Stage 13 triumph
“I’m just so happy and I couldn’t choose a better day,” an emotional Vingegaard said after the 14th win of a stellar season. “Today is the birthday of my daughter and I wanted to win for her so badly today. Our plan was to see if we could take some time on our opponents today. That happened and I’m just so happy and proud to do it today and do it for my daughter, Frida.”
Asked whether coming first, second and third was part of Jumbo-Visma’s plan, the 26-year-old admitted: “That’s even better than the plan.”
The Vuelta continues on Saturday with Stage 14, another seriously tough mountain test that concludes with a summit showdown on the Puerto del Belagua. This is followed by a hilly test in the Basque region that will favour the breakaway artists but have the GC riders on red alert for a potential ambush.
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