Lenny Martinez slipped into the red jersey on Stage 6 of the Vuelta a España but Jumbo-Visma was the big winner on the climb up to the observatory at Javalambre.
Sepp Kuss clinched the stage win from a huge breakaway while his teammates Primoz Roglic and Jonas Vingegaard shot more than 30 seconds at Remco Evenepoel, who had said he wanted to relinquish responsibility for red, but maybe not like that.
In a frantic start to the wild 183.5km La Vall d’Uixo stage, Evenepoel’s Soudal-Quick-Step team unleashed a top-flight group of 40 riders including Kuss, Martinez, Marc Soler, Mikel Landa and Wout Poels. and saw them play out a six-minute lead.
On the steep ramps of the final climb, Kuss went off alone with 2.5km to go while the American, who worked tirelessly for Roglic in the Giro d’Italia and Vingegaard in the Tour de France, collected his personal reward. However, the only 20-year-old French hopeful Martinez came in second, 26 seconds back and conceded red for Groupama-FDJ with an 8-second lead.
“It was an incredibly tough stage and we wanted to try to get through the break,” said Kuss. “I felt super good all day and was just thinking about when to go.”
Further down the mountain, Roglic was the first to launch an attack from the group of main favorites and when it became clear that Evenepoel was unable to react, Vingegaard rushed to him and put a 32 second lead over the Belgian. Evenepoel still stays ahead of the pair in the standings, but his lead over Vingegaard has shrunk to 5 seconds, with Roglic a further 6 seconds back. “If that was a bad day, then that’s okay,” said Evenepoel. “I was feeling a little sluggish but let’s hope this is one of my worst days.”
Geraint Thomas tried to stay with Evenepoel but lost the wheel towards the end of the race and is now in 23rd place, growing to around two minutes behind the other main favourites.
