Jumbo-Visma absolutely dominated Stage 13 of the 2023 Vuelta a Espana, with Jonas Vingegaard taking the win over his teammate and race leader Sepp Kuss and Primoz Roglic taking third. The trio also lead the general classification, with Kuss holding a 1’37” lead over Vingegaard. Kuss added 1’11” to his overall lead.
The challenge for the day was the mountaintop finish atop the Col de Tourmalet, a fixture of the Tour de France which is making its debut appearance in the Vuelta. Overall, the day was serving up 4000m of climbing to the peloton today.
Elie Gesbert (Arkéa Samsic) started the day launching a battle for the break on the slopes up Puerto de Portalet. Dozens went on the chase and he was quickly brought back while riders dropped off the back as well. Romain Bardet (DSM-Firmenich) took the top KOM points on the Puerto del Portalet.
On the descent, Eduardo Sepulveda (Lotto Dstny) opened a small gap to the bunch with 119km to go. Jonathan Castroviejo (Ineos Greandiers) and Edward Theuns (Lidl Trek) joined him.
Edward Planckaert (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Steffan Bissegger (EF Education-EasyPost) e Imanol Erviti (Movistar Team), Jonathan Castroviejo (Ineos Grenadiers), Edward Theuns (Trek-Segafredo) and Eduardo Sepúlveda (Lotto Dstny) led the way on the first slopes up Col d’Aubisque, but were caught with 101km to go. As expected, the sprinters are being shed off the back.
Emanuel Buchmann (Bora-Hansgrohe), Max Poole (DSM-Firmenich) and Pelayo Sanchez (Burgos-BH) have opened a small gap halfway through the ascent up Col d’Aubisque while Jumbo-Visma was controlling the front of the peloton.
It’s then Andreas Kron (Lotto Dstny) making a big push on the climb. He’s joined by Kenny Elissonde (Lidl-Trek) and Cristian Rodriguez (Arkéa Samsic) with 3km to the summit. Evenepoel and Almeida are dropped from the back of the bunch.
Michel Storer (Groupama-FDJ) goes solo to take the 15 KOM points with Andreas Kron (Lotto Dstny) and Kenny Elissonde (Lidl-Trek) close behind.
Into the last 75 kilometers, it’s Bahrain Victorious leading the bunch. Damiano Caruso and Wout Poels are out front with Kuss and Vingegaard close by. Meanwhile, Almeida trails by 40”, and Evenepoel by 1’40”.
Vingegaard went on the attack with 61km to go with Landa chasing. As the climb up the Col de Spandelles progresses, there were at least 20 riders out front. It was Storer taking the points ahead of Vingegaard, Ayuso and Kuss.
Evenepoel continued to struggle and was now back by 7’18”.
Through the valley to the base of the Tourmalet, Robert Gesink and Wilco Kelderman led the bunch.
The riders faced 18.9km of climbing with an average gradient of 7.4%. The last two kilometres were the steepest.
With 12 km to go, it’s a line of Kelderman, Vingegaard, Ayuso, Kuss, Mas, Landa, Buitrago, Vlasov, Uijtdebroeks, Soler, Roglic, Carthy, Cras & Lopez.
Vingegaard attacked with 8km to go prompting an immediate reaction from Ayuso, Mas, Kuss, Uijtdebroeks and Roglic.
He goes again and Mas was the quickest to react. Ayuso chased with Kuss, Roglic and Uijtdebroeks on his wheel. Mas, Uijtdebroeks all worked together 30” behind. Kuss, Roglic and Landa followed.
With 5km to go, it was still Vingegaard with Mas and Kuss trailing by 36”. Ayuso, Roglic and Uijtdebroeks were right behind. Mas moves up a little, but it’s Kuss that is stronger to move within 25 seconds of his teammate.
Into the last kilometer, it was still Vingegaard, but Kuss made a strong move to close the gap.
Vingegaard takes the win with his compatriots Kuss and Roglic close behind.
Vingegaard “Over the Moon”
“I’m proud and over the moon”, an emotional Vingegaard said. “I can’t imagine a better day. My little daughter Frida is celebrating her birthday today. So I wanted to win the stage. I’m sorry I couldn’t be there, but I’m hoping this will more than make up for it. This victory is for her.”
“We had our sights set on this stage”, Vingegaard added. “We wanted to gain time on the competition, which we managed to do. Then, finishing first, second, and third makes it really unique. We now have three team members in the top three in the overall standings. It’s perfect in every way. Our goal is to win the Vuelta. At the moment, it looks promising.”
Evenepoel Suffers
It ended up being a tough day for Remco Evenepoel. The stage three winner, leader of the race for three consecutive days in the first week, got dropped four kilometers from the top of the Aubisque. The Belgian Champion was immediately surrounded by his teammates Mattia Cattaneo, Jan Hirt, James Knox and Louis Vervaeke, who at first tried to limit the losses and then continued to support him all the way to the finish atop Tourmalet. He ultimately ended up finishing more than 27 minutes behind stage winner Jonas Vingegaard.
“It was just one of those days where my tank was empty,” said Evenepoel. “We gave it everything and I have no regrets. I want to thank my teammates who stayed with me the whole day and left everything out there for me. We will discuss and look at where we go from here for the rest of La Vuelta.”
White Jersey for Juan Ayoso
Juan Ayuso put in a show of attrition to climb to 4th place on the stage. He now moves into the lead of the young riders classification and up to 4th place on GC at 2’37”.
“It was a crazy day and was very explosive, I think I’ve never ridden a stage like this,” said Ayoso at the finish atop the Col du Tourmalt. “I was speaking with Sepp Kuss and he said it was like a Tour de France style stage, even though I’ve never done the Tour I can kind of understand what he meant by it. At the start I didn’t feel great from the crash yesterday but I felt better and better as the stage went on.
“I think tomorrow I should be even a bit better to try and make the race hard. At the end I was pulling with Enric and we were just trying to work a bit together against Jumbo. Last year I wore the white jersey but I hadn’t earned it because I was just wearing it for Remco so this year it feels good to have actually earned it.”
Stage 13 Brief Results:
1. Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma)
2. Sepp Kuss (Jumbo-Visma), +30”
3. Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma), +33”
4. Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates), +38”
5. Cian Uijtdebroeks (Bora-Hansgrohe), +38”
General Classification After Stage 13:
1. Sepp Kuss (Jumbo-Visma)
2. Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma), +1’37”
3. Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma), +1’44”
4. Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates), +2’37”
5. Enric Mas (Movistar), +3’06”
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