LOJA: Belgium’s Wout van Aert produced a powerful late attack to win Stage 13 of the Vuelta a Espana, beating Valentin Paret-Peintre in a sprint finish after escaping from a massive breakaway.
The 192.8-kilometre stage from Almunecar to Loja featured an unusually large breakaway that included as many as 43 riders at one point. Van Aert and Paret-Peintre eventually broke clear with just 3.7km remaining and held their advantage to the finish.
Van Aert’s superior power proved decisive in the final sprint, while his Visma-Lease a Bike team-mate Matthew Brennan finished third, 24 seconds behind the leading pair.
Wout van Aert timed his decisive move perfectly, attacking when the remaining breakaway riders began preparing for a sprint.
The Belgian said he had studied the stage profile and identified a final climb, or “kicker”, approaching the village near the finish as an opportunity to launch his attack.
Van Aert explained that attacking around four kilometres from the finish can create uncertainty among breakaway riders because no one wants to spend energy chasing another rider only for someone else to benefit.
His strategy worked. Once Van Aert and Paret-Peintre opened a gap, the rest of the breakaway could not bring them back before the finish.
The victory adds another major success to Van Aert’s Vuelta campaign and highlights his ability to combine climbing strength, tactical awareness and sprinting power.
Britain’s Matthew Brennan completed the podium after finishing third behind his Visma-Lease a Bike team-mate and Paret-Peintre.
Race leader Enric Mas crossed the finish line around three minutes after the stage winner alongside the other major general classification contenders. As a result, Mas retained his overall lead over Primoz Roglic.
After Stage 13, Mas leads Roglic by 1 minute 45 seconds, while Felix Gall sits third at 2 minutes 6 seconds. Richard Carapaz is fourth, followed by Britain’s Oscar Onley in fifth.
The top 10 overall standings are:
- Enric Mas — 45:08:51
- Primoz Roglic — +1:45
- Felix Gall — +2:06
- Richard Carapaz — +3:53
- Oscar Onley — +4:29
- Jakob Omrzel — +4:59
- Mattias Skjelmose — +5:32
- Sepp Kuss — +7:58
- Harold Tejada — +8:33
- Clément Berthet — +11:06
Wout van Aert Faces Tough Vuelta Mountain Stage
The Wout van Aert Vuelta victory comes before another major test for the overall contenders, with the peloton facing a difficult mountain stage on Saturday.
Stage 14 will cover 154.5km from Jaen to La Pandera, where the climbers and general classification contenders are expected to battle for valuable time.
Meanwhile, Dutch sprinter Olav Kooij claimed a dramatic victory on Stage 3 of the Tour of Britain. Kooij narrowly defeated Tim Merlier after the 181.1km route from Hull to Beverley.
The victory was Kooij’s eighth stage win at the Tour of Britain, moving him to within two victories of the record held by Mark Cavendish.
Britain’s Lewis Askey finished 17th with the same time and retained the overall race lead. Belgian Tim Wellens remained second, 12 seconds behind.
Vuelta Stage 13 Top 10
- Wout van Aert — 4:34:00
- Valentin Paret-Peintre — Same time
- Matthew Brennan — +24 seconds
- Jarno Widar — Same time
- Vincenzo Albanese — Same time
- Finn Fisher-Black — Same time
- Kevin Vermaerke — Same time
- Léo Bisiaux — +28 seconds
- Simon Dalby — +32 seconds
- Filippo Zana — +45 seconds
