If there was any doubt that Jumbo-Visma are the strongest team in the Vuelta a España, those were erased on stage 13 to the Col du Tourmalet.
Jonas Vingegaard leapt away from the select group containing race leader and teammate Sepp Kuss to win the stage. With the Tour de France winner’s gap out to a stage-winning margin, Kuss then attacked to take second on the stage.
Not wanting to give his opponents an advantage, Primož Roglič waited until the final few hundred metres to leave the rest of the group behind and take third on the stage.
With former second-placed rider Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates) unable to hang on, Roglič moved into second while Vingegaard moved up four spots into third in the general classification.
Much earlier in the 135km stage into the Pyrenees, third-placed Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-Quickstep) saw his GC hopes vanish when he couldn’t hold Jumbo-Visma’s pace on the Col d’Aubisque with 84km to go.
João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) lost contact but fought for most of the stage to remain in the top 10.
Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates) held on the longest to the Jumbo-Visma onslaught, taking fourth on the stage and moving into fourth on GC at 2:37, just ahead of Enric Mas (Movistar) who finished three seconds behind on the stage.
Mas climbed four places up into fifth at 3:06, while Soler trailed in 3:08 down on the stage, dropping to sixth at 3:10.
Mikel Landa (Bahrain Victorious) held on until the final attacks, eventually letting go and finishing 1:15 behind Vingegaard. It was good enough to move the Spaniard back into the top 10 in seventh at 4:12.
Aleksandr Vlasov (Bora-Hansgrohe) finished almost a minute behind Landa on the stage, moving himself into eighth at 5:02 as Almeida and Evenepoel dropped down the rankings.
Vlasov’s teammate Cian Uijtdebroeks finished the stage win Ayuso at 40 seconds from Vingegaard, climbing the ranks five places into ninth.
Almeida, losing 6:47 on the day, narrowly managed to remain in the top 10 at 8:39 on the same time as Steff Cras (TotalEnergies).
The result of stage 13 bodes poorly for anyone but Jumbo-Visma, who have another major mountain stage on Saturday to twist the knife on the competition. Stage 14 to Larra-Belagua features two above-category climbs and a summit finish on the 161.7km route from Sauveterre-de-Béarn.
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