Primož Roglič prevails to win stage 8 as Kuss takes Red Jersey – Vuelta a Espana

Vuelta a Espana 2023

Stage 8

The Vuelta a España GC battle erupted once again on the steep slopes of Xorret de Catí, with three-time race winner Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma) outsprinting Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) at the line after a big selection on the stage 8 climb.

Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates) rounded out the podium just behind, with the trio leading home an elite group which also included Jumbo-Visma men Jonas Vingegaard and Sepp Kuss as well as UAE Team Emirates pairing João Almeida and Marc Soler, and Movistar’s Enric Mas.

The result means that Roglič claws back four bonus seconds on Evenepoel, who in turn takes two on Ayuso while Mas, Vingegaard, Almeida, Kuss, and Soler finished a further two seconds back.

The red jersey has also changed hands after Lenny Martinez (Groupama-FDJ) dropped early on the double-digit gradients of the final climb. He’d finish 13th at 1:10 down, meaning that Kuss is the new Vuelta race leader.

“Nice, eh? Now I’m even more relaxed,” Roglič said after the stage. “It was already nice but most of all I’m happy that I recovered from the crash. Just enjoying now and we go day by day.

“You always hope for the best. The guys did a really amazing job, controlling the really strong breakaway. Then we had no option in the end.

“It was hard. I did it for the first climb and also I didn’t know the finish really. In the sprint it’s always a bit of a gamble but I had the legs, and I could do it.

“At least three now, no? But maybe there’s still someone coming,” he concluded with a joke when asked how many GC leaders his team has.

Roglič’s Jumbo-Visma squad had controlled much of the second half of the stage, drilling the pace into the final of five categorised climbs of the day and hauling back the breakaway survivors on the way up.

Kuss was the first to try an attack on the harrowing gradients on the way up Xorret de Catí, leaving Evenepoel to lead the chase with Roglič and Vingegaard marking him among the elite selection that would eventually go to the finish.

The American couldn’t make his solo go to the line though, with Evenepoel eventually leading the group across 4.2km out and a kilometre from the top. At the back, Almeida, Soler and then Kuss struggled to keep the pace that Evenepoel set all the way to the top.

However, they – and Mas, who struggled on the fast descent – all made it back for the final run to the line. Evenepoel, who had been on the front for 5km, led out the final sprint, too, but he wouldn’t be the man to lead the way across the line.
Instead it was Roglič who burst past in the closing metres with Ayuso rounding out the podium not far behind as a two-second gap opened up to Vingegaard and the rest.

After a hectic sprint day on Friday, the weekend would bring the Vuelta a España peloton back to the hills with stage 8 and a climb-packed 165km race to the steep slopes of Xorret de Catí.

The first-category, 3.9km, 11.4% brute featured on the route for the first time since 2017, rounding off a day featuring three second-category climbs as well as a third-category hill.

With many mountain points on offer, the battle for the break would be a big one as dozens of riders sought to get out front during the early kilometres of the stage.

A group of 14 including 2017 Vuelta stage winner Thomas De Gendt (Lotto-Dstny) made it away on the first climb of the day, the second-category Alto de Vall d’Ebo (7.9km at 5.7%), but things came back together by the top as Jesus Herrada (Cofidis) snuck out to pick up five mountain points.

The descent and the hilly ride to the next climb, the third-category Puerto de Tollos, would see an even larger group jump away at the front, with both De Gendt and Herrada in there along with other major names including Damiano Caruso (Bahrain Victorious), Bauke Mollema (Lidl-Trek), Rui Costa (Intermarché-Circus-Wanty), Finn Fischer Black (UAE Team Emirates), and Romain Bardet (dsm-firmenich).

A total of 30 men made the break, which was left to race four minutes up the road by Groupama-FDJ, working in the peloton on behalf of race leader Lenny Martinez. Out front, Herrada grabbed three points on the Puerto de Tollos to move to second in the mountain classification on 12, nine down on Eduardo Sepulveda (Lotto-Dstny), while Cristian Rodriguez (Arkéa-Samsic) flirted with the virtual race lead.

Shortly after the top of that second climb of the day, De Gendt decided to go it alone, pushing on once more and leaving the rest of the break behind him 112km from the line.

The Belgian breakaway specialist quickly built a lead of a minute on the road to the next climb, the second-category Puerto de Benifallim (9.5km at 4.9%). Meanwhile, the peloton lay at five minutes down the road.

He’d last out front alone until the top of the climb, but a counter-attack behind would soon scoop him up on the way down the other side, with Rui Costa, Javier Romo (Astana Qazaqstan), Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain Victorious), Oier Lazkano (Movistar) and Cristian Rodriguez (Arkéa-Samsic) jumping from the chasing breakaway group.

De Gendt would quickly drop from the lead, but it wouldn’t be long before his Lotto-Dstny team had another representative up front as Andreas Kron joined Nicolas Prodhomme (AG2R Citroën) and Kenny Elissonde (Lidl-Trek) bridged to the front.
They made it across with 64km to go at the start of the next climb, the Puerto de la Carrasqueta (10.9km at 4.6%), though midway up it was all back together as the main breakaway group brought the leaders back.

The situation didn’t stay the same for long, however, as Caruso, Lazkano, Costa, Sylvain Moniquet (Lotto Dstny) and Welay Hagos Berhe (Jayco-AlUla) broke off the front in the final kilometres of the climb. It was soon eight out front as Bardet, Rodriguez, and Tiberi joined the quintet on the way down the other side.

The attacks would keep on coming as the riders raced into the final 50km, working their way towards Xorret de Catí. Costa, Lazkano, Kron, and Caruso were out front as a quartet by the intermediate sprint with 40km to go, while the peloton followed some three minutes back with Jumbo-Visma and Groupama-FDJ still leading the way.

The situation remained largely the same on the hilly run towards Xorret de Catí, with the bulk of the break swallowed up by the peloton on the way and the leaders’ advantage falling to a minute as Lennert Van Eetvelt (Lotto-Dstny) and Diego Camargo (EF Education-EasyPost) held out in between the two groups.

Heading into the final 10km of the stage, the four leaders held a gap of just 50 seconds to the peloton as Van Eetvelt and Camargo were caught. Back in the peloton, as they had been doing for some time, it was Jumbo-Visma who led the charge towards the climb.

They hit the steep slopes of Xorret de Catí 30 seconds down on the break, but it was only a matter of time for the quartet of survivors as the seconds melted away on the road uphill. They’d be caught 5km from the line but even before then there were big names dropping as Martinez and Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) struggled with the pace and the gradients.

Kuss made his move at the 5km mark, prompting Evenepoel to set the pace behind in what was an elite selection of just six favourites – Roglič, Vingegaard, Mas, Ayuso, Soler – with Almeida and Hugh Carthy (EF Education-EasyPost) battling just behind.
Kuss seemed to be out front for an age but in reality it was little under a kilometre before Evenepoel dragged him back, making it an eight-man group as Almeida joined the back. But the Portuguese rider, his teammate Soler, and Kuss, would drop shortly before the top leaving a battle to get back for the finish.

On the way down the other side, Evenepoel continued to lead the way, putting Mas in some difficulty heading downhill. However, it all came back together inside the final kilometre, setting up a grandstand sprint finish. At the line it turned out to be an Evenepoel-Roglič head-to-head battle, with the Slovenian securing what would be a double victory for Jumbo-Visma as Kuss raced into the red jersey at the expense of the long-dropped Martinez.