Vuelta 2023: Poels upsets Evenepoel and wins stage 20 in the sprint - Kuss stays in red
Sebastian Lindner
· 16.09.2023
In his old age, the 35-year-old Poels (Bahrain-Victorious) once again. The Dutchman delivered a strong performance throughout the Vuelta and now crowned it with the stage win, the 23rd of his career. He had already won a stage at the Tour de France in July - his first at a Grand Tour.
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Evenepoel (Soudal - Quick Step), on the other hand, missed out on his fourth victory at this Vuelta because he manoeuvred himself into an unfavourable position in the small leading group on the last bend of the race and was unable to close the gap to Poels, who attacked early on. Pelayo Sanchez (Burgos - BH) sprinted into second place in the leading quintet. They all belonged to the 31-man group of the day, which only really fell apart on the last climb of the 208-kilometre stage.
The top 10 of the 20th stage
- Wout Poels (Bahrain - Victorious) 4:59:29
- Remco Evenepoel (Soudal - Quick Step) +0:00
- Pelayo Sanchez (Burgos-BH) +0:00
- Lennert Van Eetvelt (Lotto Dstny) +0:00
- Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates) +0:04
- Rui Costa (Intermarché - Circus - Wanty)+ 0:26
- Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain - Victorious) +0:26
- Lennard Kämna (Bora-Hansgrohe) +0:26
- Romain Bardet (Team dsm - firmenich) +0:26
- One Rubio (Movistar) +0:26
The group of GC riders crossed the finish line more than ten minutes after the day's winner. With the exception of Cian Uijtdebroeks (Bora-Hansgrohe), who couldn't quite keep up and therefore swapped places in the overall standings with his captain Aleksandr Vlasov, all crossed the finish line together.
The picture of the day was provided by the top trio of Jumbo-Visma. Jonas Vingegaard and Primoz Roglic took their noble helper Sepp Kuss, the designated 2023 Vuelta winner, to the centre and rode to the finish together.
Like Kuss, all the other jersey wearers retain their leads in the special classifications. Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck) is still top of the points table, although Evenepoel's latest escape put him back on his heels. The mountain jersey was out of his grasp anyway. Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates) defended the white jersey of the best young professional.
The overall standings after the 20th stage
- Sepp Kuss (Jumbo-Visma) 74:23:42
- Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) 0:17
- Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) +1:08
- Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates) +3:44
- Mikel Landa (Bahrain Victorious) +4:03
- Enric Mas (Movistar) +4:14
- Aleksandr Vlasov (Bora-Hansgrohe) +8:19
- Cian Uijtdebroeks (Bora-Hansgrohe) +8:26
- Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) +10:08
- Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain Victorious) +12:04
This was the 20th stage of the 2023 Vuelta
There were the first tentative attacks immediately after the sharp start, but the decisive group broke away after 18 kilometres on the descent of the first of ten category 3 climbs. 31 riders were in the group, including Lennard Kämna and Ben Zwiehoff (both Bora-Hansgrohe), Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers), Romain Bardet (Team dsm-firmenich), the stage winners Rui Costa (Intermarche-Circus-Wanty) and Andreas Kron (Lotto Dstny), the former overall leader Lenny Martinez (Groupama-FDJ), Hugh Carthy (EF Education EasyPost) - and of course Evenepoel again.
Towards the middle of the race, the escapees, who worked well together and did almost all the leading work, had built up a six-minute lead. The gap remained constant for a long time.
With 71 kilometres to go, the finale was underway. Zwiehoff launched the first attack, followed by others. But no one was shaken off at first. Soudal then took control again, and the rain that had started in the meantime also calmed things down. Due to the increase in speed, the lead grew to eight minutes 50 kilometres before the finish, but it had long been clear at this point that the day's winner would come from the group.
With 40 kilometres to go, the lead group had dwindled to 23 riders. However, the preliminary decision was only made on the final climb. Poels attacked, Lennert Van Eetvelt (Lotto Dstny) followed suit and Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates) had a small lead on Evenepoel at the summit, but he was able to close the gap as a soloist on the descent, just like Sanchez. The group around Kämna was no longer able to do so.
Meanwhile, the class favourites also reached the final climb. Mikel Landa (Bahrain-Victorious) launched another attack, but Roglic confidently got in front and thwarted all further attempts.
The leading quintet was already heading into the absolute final. Poels attacked in the last bend 300 metres before the finish. Evenepoel reacted too late and was unable to catch the Dutchman in the final sprint.
5 min 130km before destination
