Vuelta: Jumbo-Visma takes the stage - Roglic wins the stage, Kuss takes red
Giro winner Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) took his eleventh Vuelta stage win in total, underlining his ambitions for a fourth overall victory.
After climbing the Xorret de Cati on stage 8, the Slovenian beat the Belgian defending champion Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step) in the final sprint and also secured ten bonus seconds. Roglic's team-mate Sepp Kuss took the overall leader's red jersey, completing the team's successful day. Danish Tour champion Jonas Vingegaard also remained within striking distance of the leaders in fifth place.
"That was a tough climb, but I had good legs," said Roglic. On the 3.8 kilometre long climb with up to 22 per cent steep ramps, Evenepoel was quickly left to his own devices against the three jumbo cycling pros. Nevertheless, the Belgian time trial champion, who had shown weaknesses on Thursday and lost the red jersey, held his own. Roglic only overtook him shortly before the finish line. The previous holder of the red jersey, Lenny Martinez from France, had already lost touch long before that.
Buchmann best German in 29th place
In the overall standings, the American Kuss is now 43 seconds ahead of the Spaniard Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates). The three top favourites Evenepoel (+2:32 minutes), Roglic (+2:38) and Vingegaard (+2:42) follow in sixth to eighth place. The best German is Emanuel Buchmann (Bora-Hansgrohe) in 29th place (+18:48). Buchmann's captain Aleksandr Vlasov has moved up to 15th place overall (+4:05) thanks to a good 10th place on the stage. The Russian had problems in between, but showed a strong finish.
Before the first rest day, a challenging 9th stage over 184.5 kilometres from Cartagena to Collado de la Cruz de Caravaca awaits the riders on Sunday. The final climb is a category 2 ascent.
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