Having started two weeks ago will a quality general classification line-up that promised a great battle, La Vuelta now looks set for one of its most one-sided final weeks for years as Jumbo Visma threaten to run rampant. On the basis of the evidence today, they are in a position to chose which one of them wins overall and even how the stage wins are carved up over.
The headline event on stage 13 to Col du Tourmalet today, apart from the Jumbo Visma 1-2-3 finish - led by Jonas Vingegaard - was the implosion of Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep). Anyone who wondered if last year's win at La Vuelta truly marked him out as a prolific Grand Tour winner in the years ahead, as Primož Roglič crashed out 12 months ago, will have taken a keen interest in today's stage.
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On the slopes of the Col de Aubisque, some 87km from the finish, Evenepeol inexplicably went backwards. Though the favourites group was still very large at the time, the defending champion lost contact with the group and continued to go south for the remainder of the stage, surrounded by his team mates.
He lost a whopping 27:05 to stage winner Vingegaard and has tumbled from 3rd to 19th overall. His implosion changes the character for the battle for the overall victory and greatly increases the chances of race leader, Sepp Kuss, being supported by his Jumbo Visma team all the way to the finish in Madrid on Sunday week.
While Kuss has already won a stage, and is leading the race, it was expected his chances would fade when the battle erupted between Evenepoel and Vingegaard-Roglič. Kuss was expected to be drawn into team duties, working for Vingegaard and Roglič, as they tried to see off the challenge of Evenepoel.
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However, as such a loyal servant to both of his bigger name team mates in recent years, it may just be payback time – in a major way – for Kuss if Jumbo Visma does not have to worry about the challenge of Evenepoel after today.
The battle for stage victory today was won by Vingegaard when he attacked, from a 16-man select group, with 7.6km remaining. Kuss and Roglič then sat on the other main general classification contenders, forcing Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates) and Enric Mas (Team Movistar) into chasing duties.
Kuss then attacked the group just inside 2km to go and he cut the gap to Vingegaard in half, down to 30 seconds on the line. Behind him, Roglič also attacked the GC close to the finish and he was just three seconds down on Kuss on the finish line. Young guns Ayuso and Cian Uijtdebroeks (Bora-hansgrohe) were next, in 4th and 5th just five seconds off Roglič, with Mas in 6th another couple of seconds back.
Kuss remains in the race lead, though team mates Vingegaard has closed the gap to him. Kuss holds the maglia rojas by 1:37 from Roglič, with Vingegaard now 3rd at 1:44. Ayuso is best of the rest; 4th at 2:37. He is followed by Mas, now 5th at 3:05.
The only question now is how Jumbo Visma will approach the rest of the race from a tactical perspective. Will Roglič and Vingegaard be allowed - and opt - to race to win or will they be content to dial down their aggression in favour of what would be an immensely popular overall victory at this Grand Tour?
