American climber Sepp Kuss (Jumbo-Visma) came through the only individual time trial of the 2023 Vuelta a Espana with flying colours, the surprise race leader limiting his losses over a flat 25.8km course around Valladolid to retain his red jersey at the start of the second week of this thrilling 78th edition.
Italy’s Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers) put in a powerhouse performance to take the Stage 10 spoils by 16 seconds over the world time trial champion Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep). Ganna completed the course in a time of 27.39 with an average speed just shy of 56km/h as he finally gave Ineos something to cheer after a torrid opening phase of the third Grand Tour of the season.
A solid ride from the man in the rainbow bands saw Evenepoel recover from a slight blip to take 20 seconds on his principal rival Primoz Roglic, the three-time Vuelta winner, and another minute on the third Jumbo-Visma co-leader, Jonas Vingegaard.
But all predictions of defending champion Evenepoel soaring back into the race lead were premature with Kuss retaining the red jersey by 26 seconds over Spain’s Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates) with Evenepoel rising to third place at 1:09.
“I think they [Jumbo-Visma] told him to go all-out today and not lose too much time, because of course they want to play the game with the three leaders,” Evenepoel said, before heaping praise on the American for an uncharacteristically strong ride against the clock.
“I think he did a very good job and, like I say, a big chapeau to him. I was pretty surprised when I saw his finish. But in the end, it’s still a very long Vuelta and many more opportunities to come.”
Giro d’Italia champion Roglic posted the third best time to ride to fourth in the general classification, with French debutant Lenny Martinez (Groupama-FDJ) dropping to fifth. Spain’s Mikel Landa (Bahrain Victorious) was the big GC casualty, the veteran dropping from fifth place to eleventh after being caught by his two-minute man Evenepoel near the finish.
Portugal’s Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) rose four places to sixth on GC after a solid ride for fourth, while two-time Tour de France winner Vingegaard failed to replicate his blistering July form by finishing 1:02 down on Evenepoel. The Dane stays in seventh place but is now 2:22 behind team-mate Kuss and 1:13 adrift of Evenepoel, who remained cautiously optimistic ahead of the mountain tests to come.
“I think it’s pretty good, knowing that I didn’t have the best time trial legs today,” Evenepoel said. “I had a difficult moment after 10 minutes. I think that’s the reason why I lost some time on Pippo. I think if a guy deserves a win on this stage, it’s him.
“Overall, we should be happy with the GC win, but of course it’s a pity that we didn’t take the stage win as well. But two times second and already a stage win in the pocket is pretty nice for the first 10 days of this Vuelta.
“Let’s say that we have to be happy with the GC gaps I took today, and also coming quite closer to Sepp who did, actually, a super good TT. Big congrats to him.”
Ganna’s victory was his 28th pro win and took the pressure off his ailing Ineos Grenadiers team, who have already lost key men in Laurens de Plus and Thymen Arensman following hefty falls in Stages 1 and 7 respectively. But Geraint Thomas’s run of bad luck continued, the Welsh veteran suffering a mechanical and needing a bike change on his way to finishing two minutes down on his team-mate.
The 2018 Tour winner and 2023 Giro runner-up now finds himself over 13 minutes adrift in the GC and outside the top 20.
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'Beyond compare' - Ganna tops standings with stunning ITT run
With Evenepoel quietly confident but Kuss now very much among the contenders to take the red jersey all the way to Madrid, the Vuelta continues on Wednesday with the 163km Stage 11 – a largely flat ride from Lerma with a sting in the tail: the first-category climb of La Laguna Negra, which peaks at 14% near the top.
Stage 11 marks the first of three summit finishes in the second week, including Friday’s mouth-watering trip up the Tourmalet in a stage that will make the fate of La Roja much clearer.
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September 06, 2023 at 12:08AM
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Vuelta a Espana 2023: Filippo Ganna storms to time trial win on Stage 10, Sepp Kuss holds on to red jersey - Eurosport COM
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