The second mountain stage of the Vuelta a España proved to be explosive on the final climb. Sepp Kuss was the first to reach Pico del Buitre. The American from Jumbo-Visma was part of a large leading group and attacked on the challenging final ascent.
The team leader, Primoz Roglic, also launched an attack on the last climb. This forced Remco Evenepoel to immediately accelerate. Jonas Vingegaard, Juan Ayuso, and Enric Mas tried to follow him. In the end, Primoz Roglic and Jonas Vingegaard crossed the finish line together in a gesture of camaraderie.
Lenny Martinez, at just 20 years old, takes over the leader’s jersey from Remco Evenepoel. The young French rider from Groupama-FDJ has an 8-second advantage over Sepp Kuss. Marc Soler is now third, trailing by 51 seconds.
Despite Evenepoel losing a significant amount of time in the stage, he still holds the lead in the overall classification, though his competitors are right behind. Here are the time differences between the top favorites:
- Lenny Martinez
- Sepp Kuss +8″
- Mikel Landa +1’58”
- Remco Evenepoel +2’47”
- Enric Mas +2’50”
- Jonas Vingegaard +2’52”
- Primoz Roglic +2’58”
- Juan Ayuso +3’06”
- Cian Uijtdebroeks +3’08”
- João Almeida +3’17”
- Aleksandr Vlasov +3’36”
- Geraint Thomas +4’57”
- Thymen Arensman +5’10”