2023-09-02 19:19:00
The Slovenian cycling star Primoz Roglic has won the eighth stage of the Tour of Spain. The 33-year-old from the top team Jumbo-Visma prevailed on Saturday after 165 km from Denia to Xorret de Cati and referred defending champions Remco Evenepoel (Belgium/Soudal-Quick Step) and Juan Ayuso (Spain/UAE Team Emirates) to the places.
Roglic’ jumbo teammate Sepp Kuss (USA) finished two seconds behind the leading trio and took over the red jersey from the overall leader from Frenchman Lenny Martinez (Groupama-FDJ).
The demanding stage led over five categorized mountains, Tour winner Jonas Vingegaard (Denmark) was also at the front and ended up two seconds behind the winner.
In the meantime, a breakaway group of 30 had broken away from the field on Saturday and gained a lead of up to 4:30 minutes. On the last climb of the day, the extremely steep Xorret de Cati, the favorites were ahead again. Evenepoel climbed the strongest, but after the following three-kilometre descent, Roglic won the final sprint.
Captain’s question at Jumbo: Roglic reacts with humor
Second-placed Evenepoel was disappointed despite the strong performance. The reason: the Belgian had apparently not noticed that the day’s victory was at stake.
Evenepoel faux pas
“I didn’t know we were sprinting for victory,” he said. “I thought the breakaways were still gone. That’s why I so ‘boldly’ attached myself to Roglic’s bike. I tried not to give him any space. It wasn’t until I crossed the finish line that I realized that nobody had finished in front of me was.”
The ninth stage takes the peloton on Sunday over 184.5 km and a 1st and 2nd category climb. The field works its way up from Cartagena to the Collado de la Cruz de Caravaca. A total of 21 stages are on the program for the Vuelta until September 17th.
Giant duel in the sprint: Roglic shows Evenepoel his teeth
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