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There are 13 riders within five minutes of the lead at present at La Vuelta a Espana, but everyone is focused on the exciting battle that is taking place tactically, physically and mentally on the roads of Spain between Remco Evenepoel and the Jumbo-Visma triumvirate of Sepp Kuss, Primoz Roglic and Jonas Vingegaard.
After the stage 10 time trial, Kuss leads the race overall by 26 seconds to Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates), with Evenepoel third at 1’09 down, Roglic fourth at 1’36 adrift and Vingegaard seventh at 2’22 behind.
The man at the head of affairs at present is Kuss, in the near-unprecedented position for him of having to try during a time trial on stage 10, outfitting himself well in the circumstances to retain red. He looked ahead to the future when asked by reporters if the Vuelta win was a realistic possibility.
“I have to believe in myself, I would love to keep the red jersey and even win the race and just trust my feelings and ride with my instincts," Kuss said.
"We have to play our cards with the three of us because Soudal may be a bit weak in the mountains. If we can isolate Remco, we can do something with that.
“So much can happen in the mountains. In the first half of a Grand Tour, it's always a game of seconds. But then, in one stage [of the second part], you can blow up.
“We've still got three very strong options, and I've shown I've got good legs. In my opinion, if you have good legs in the Pyrenees and on the Angliru, you can get a minute very quickly on the rest.”
Stage 11 is another summit finish a 6.5-kilometre climb at an average of 6.7 per cent to La Laguna Negra to conclude an otherwise flat route.
Upcoming climbs to the Col du Tourmalet on Stage 13 and a hors categorie-double of Col Hourcere and Puerto de Larrau mid-stage on stage 14 are significantly harder, while the Angliru awaits in week three of competition, looming over all.
Evenepoel moved up to third overall after stage 10, he put a valuable 20 seconds into Roglič, and nearly a minute into Vingegaard, over that for Kuss, a very good return for the Belgian on a day where the Jumbo-Visma squad couldn’t use their numbers advantage.
“Two times second and already a stage win in the pocket is pretty nice for the first ten days of this Vuelta,” said Evenepoel. “We have to be happy with the GC gaps that I took today and coming quite closer to Sepp, who actually did a super good TT. Big congrats to him as well.
“I think [Jumbo-Visma] told [Kuss] to just go all out today to try and not lose too much time because I think they want to play the game with three leaders. I think he did a very good job and, like I said, a big chapeau to him because I was pretty surprised when I saw this finish.
“But in the end, it’s still a very long Vuelta, and there are many more opportunities to come, so we’ll try to go for it and keep on building. Thinking about how last weekend went and also today, I think I’ve been showing three days of good level, so we have to keep on building with that and try to hope to take some more time in some other stages.”
Evenepoel has the significant disadvantage of his team not being the strongest in the mountains, he has regularly been sighted without teammates by the conclusion of stages, while other teams boast three or four riders in opposition. It hasn’t yet been a decisive factor, but upcoming routes with very tough climbs mid-stage could open up opportunities for Jumbo-Visma to force pressure on Evenepoel from a long way out, in a similar manner to how they have attacked Tadej Pogacar in the 2022 Tour de France.
UAE Team Emirates have an intriguing hand to play as well, with Soler backed up by the more fancied pair of Joao Almeida, fourth at 2’16, and young gun Juan Ayuso, eighth at 2’25. Their intervention may be crucial, they could potentially team up with Jumbo-Visma on a long-range move, or be the ones aiding Evenepoel and helping to chase a dangerous attack back as it will equally affect the UAE trio.
Lenny Martinez (Groupama-FDJ), Enric Mas (Movistar), Aleksandr Vlasov (BORA-hansgrohe) and Mikel Landa (Bahrain Victorious) are all in with a shot of a podium position, both Martinez and Landa have been fading since being part of the stage 6 breakaway that shook up the GC standings. Young gun Cian Uijtdebroeks (BORA-hansgrohe), currently in 14th, 5’16 down, is a rider to keep a keen eye on, for future Grand Tours as much as this one, the 20-year-old is very highly regarded.
La Vuelta continues tonight with a trip to the summit finish of La Laguna Negra, the mostly flat stage rearing up in the 6.5km at 6.7% finale to make the stage one for the climbers. Watch from 10.50pm AEST on SBS VICELAND and SBS On Demand.
