La Vuelta | Evenepoel seizes power with a stage victory, but crashes hard after the finish

The leading group of the day quickly got the approval of the peloton. In the end, eleven riders went on an adventure. These were Caruso, Kamna, Sutterlin, Ghebreigzabhier, Sepulveda, Vendrame, Herregodts, Latour, Le Berre, Diaz and Barrenetxea.

The lead of the team increased to a maximum of five minutes. However, there was some fear in the peloton and so it was decided to keep Damiano Caruso in check in particular. Jumbo-Visma and Soudal Quick-Step both put a rider in front so as not to give too much space to the number four in the Giro d’Italia. As a result, the lead at 40 kilometers from the finish was still more than three minutes.

On the final climb, Diaz started early, causing the leading group to explode. Only Caruso, Kamna, Sepulveda, Ghebreigzabhier and Barrenetxea remained, while Diaz himself promptly fell through. Not long after that, only Caruso, Kamna and Sepulveda were left at the front and Sepulveda eventually also had to pass. Robert Gesink took over the lead in the peloton.

Battle in the platoon

There was surprisingly early action in the peloton. An attack by Jay Vine was short-lived, but not much later Romain Bardet took off and Wilco Kelderman snuck into the wheel. This quickly reduced the lead of the leading group by one minute. The wearer of the red jersey Piccolo had to release in the meantime, so it was clear early on that a new classification leader would come.

The chances for the two front runners seemed small at the foot of the final climb, but from that moment on the pace in the peloton suddenly dropped considerably. Kamna and Caruso ran out and six kilometers from the finish the German managed to release his competitor, but the gap was not big. The lead with the peloton had now increased to one and a half minutes. Still, things remained restless in the peloton and Ayuso in particular seemed to have plans.

Finale

With four kilometers to go, Jay Vine took the lead and the pace went up in the air. Kamna cracked Caruso for the second time, but the thinned peloton seemed to be closing in very quickly. Ayuso continued the pace with an attack, but Jumbo-Visma was very alert.

Sepp Kuss then got the space to attack and it was total chaos in the peloton for a while. Marc Soler drove towards the American, but Kuss mainly looked at his leaders and when Kamna was grabbed, everything was back together.

It ended in a sprint between the favorites and Remco Evenepoel turned out to be the strongest. He sprinted Vingegaard out of the wheel and thus hit a double blow. Both the stage and the red jersey thus came to Belgium. Yet it was not just a party, because shortly after the finish Evenepoel collided with a group of people and he crashed. A bleeding head wound resulted.

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From Barcelona to Madrid: the 78th Vuelta a España can rightly be called ‘El Clásico’! Primoz Roglic and Jonas Vingegaard vs. Remco Evenepoel and what can mega talent Juan Ayuso do? Don’t miss anything about the Vuelta at Eurosport and discovery+.
2023-08-28 16:06:00
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