(Reuters) – Primoz Roglic powered past reigning champion Remco Evenepoel to win the eighth stage of the Vuelta a Espana after a tough fight on the climb to Xorret del Cati on Saturday.
Roglic’s Jumbo Visma team mate Sepp Kuss took the overall leader’s red jersey after Lenny Martinez of Groupama-FDJ cracked near the finish of the 165km stage from Denia.
The peloton reeled in four breakaway riders at the start of the brutal final climb and battle commenced amongst the general classification contenders with Jumbo Visma again dominant.
American Kuss was the first to attack before Belgium’s Evenepoel (Soudal Quick Step) took it on over the summit on the downhill race to the finish line.
Evenepoel was unable to hold off three-time Vuelta winner Roglic in the final sprint to the line but looked strong as he came home in second place. Spain’s Juan Ayuso was third. Co-favourite Jonas Vingegaard,, also of Jumbo Visma) was fifth with Kuss seventh.
With Martinez more than a minute behind at the finish, Kuss now leads the standings by 43 seconds from Spain’s Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates) and exactly one minute from Martinez.
Evenepoel, Roglic and Vingegaard are well-placed in sixth, seventh and eighth places, around two and a half minutes behind Kuss but with two weeks of racing still to go.
(Reporting by Martyn Herman; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
