Tadej Pogačar keeps adding monument wins to his palmares, winning his third Il Lombardia in a row. After not being able to distance everyone on Passo di Ganda, Pogačar attacked on the descent and soloed to his fifth monument victory.

UAE’s Slovenian superstar was the main favourite to win Lombardia after being victorious in 2021 and 2022, beating Fausto Masnada and Enric Mas in a sprint. Pogačar prepared for Lombardia with four Italian classics, running 2nd in Giro dell’Emilia, 3rd in Coppa Sabatini, 4th in Giro della Toscana and 5th in Tre Valli Varesine. Primož Roglič and Remco Evenepoel, who both started in La Vuelta, were the other two big contenders. Unfortunately for the Belgian champion he crashed early in the race with more than 200 km to go. Evenepoel continued but the hard crash definitely affected his race performance.

238 kilometres with 4,646 metres of climbing makes Lombardia one of the hardest one-day races of the year. The main climb this year was Passo di Ganda, where in 2021 Pogačar attacked and later was caught on the descent by Fausto Masnada. Passo di Ganda is a relatively easy climb as the average gradient of the first six kilometres are little bit above 6%, where drafting is extremely important, while the last two kilometres, where the action usually happens, average almost 9%.

Before Passo di Ganda there was a big crash in the peloton with Richard Carapaz, Esteban Chaves, Mikel Landa, Matteo Jorgenson and other strong riders going down. Before the climb Nick Schultz sitting in the peloton spent 4,483 kilojoules for 4:53h. The intensity was not that high for a monument one day race, averaging 13.50 kj/kg/h, but the legs were surely still fatigued after climbing for almost 5 hours.

Pogačar’s teammate Adam Yates attacked early on Ganda, making the pace harder and forcing Jumbo-Visma to spend their energy with Atilla Valter in pursuit. Evenepoel did not look good and was distanced quickly like in the 2021 edition.

Pogačar and Roglič both were looking at each other, while Michael Woods, Chris Harper, Adam Yates, Richard Carapaz, Aleksandr Vlasov, Simon Yates and Andrea Bagioli made the split and got a gap on the big contenders. Pogačar later bridged to the first group and dropped Roglič who was struggling. Despite Pogačar attacking, and being joined by a very strong Aleksandr Vlasov, Roglič was able to claw back the lead duo with Simon Yates and Carlos Rodriguez close to this wheel. At the crest of Passo di Ganda the best climbers were together before Pogačar attacked on the descent.

Pogačar, Vlasov, Roglič, S. Yates and Bagioli climbed Passo di Ganda in 23 minutes and 8 seconds, setting a new climbing record. In 2021 Pogačar did Passo di Ganda in 23:14 min, while the second group did it in 23:44 min. Compared to other 2023 races, the ᵉW/Kg were not high. 6.33 – 6.34 ᵉW/Kg for the riders in the first group is not anything special for 2023 standards, but it comes at the end of nearly 9 months of full gas racing for many of these riders.

Pogačar demonstrated his improved descending skills off Passo di Ganda compared to 2021, opening a significant gap over his chasers. On the flat before Colle Aperto the UAE superstar benefited from group 2 syndrome, with his rivals unable to work well together. Despite cramps in the legs he won his third Il Lombardia in a row in convincing fashion. Bagioli won the bunch sprint behind getting his biggest result in World Tour races, while Roglič in his final race in Jumbo-Visma finished 3rd, beating his future teammate Vlasov.

Results powered by FirstCycling.com

Remco Evenepoel dominated the breakaway of La Vuelta Stage 18, achieving his 50th pro victory at age 23, while Jumbo-Visma worked for their leader Sepp Kuss, who survived the high pace on the final climb made by Bahrain-Victorious, keeping his leader’s jersey.

After a Jumbo-Visma civil war on Angliru, it was a relatively calm day on Stage 18, with the breakaway going early and obtaining a huge gap over the peloton as Jumbo-Visma was happy to give away the bonus seconds and stage win. With two Cruz de Linares (8.2 km, 8.6%) ascents at the end of the course, it was going to be a day for climbers.

Remco Evenepoel was the big favourite from the breakaway with Max Poole, Damiano Caruso, Egan Bernal, Andreas Kron, Julien Bernard and others trying to challenge the Belgian champion. Despite being alone in the group with no teammates it was a perfect day for Evenepoel as the first half of the Linares ascent was over 10% gradient, which was suited for a high w/kg climber. Evenepoel had strong legs, did a lot of pacing in the middle of the stage and rode away from everyone on the first of the two Linares ascents, dropping Poole as the last rider.

Evenepoel did 6.53 ᵉW/Kg for 24:40 min on the first ascent and 6.17 ᵉW/Kg for 25:55 on the second time up Linares when he already had the stage win secured. No one came close to challenging him, as Evenepoel beat second-place finisher Damiano Caruso by 4 minutes and 44 seconds, for his 50th pro victory and 3rd stage victory in the 2023 Vuelta. There is still a single mountain day left on Stage 20 but it does not have the hard climbs of Stage 18.

In the peloton, it was a calm day compared to Angliru. Bahrain-Victorious again were pacing as they still had a strong climbing team even with Caruso in the breakaway. The peloton did the first Linares ascent in 25:05 min with 6.22 ᵉW/Kg. A decent pace but not too hard, slower than a practically solo Remco Evenepoel.

It was a long stage with a higher kilojoule count than the Angliru and Tourmalet explosive stages. Steff Cras spent before the final climb 4,024 kilojoules for 4:32h, which is 13.22 kj/kg/h. Not a high intensity but it was more of a difficult endurance test than most of La Vuelta's climbing stages.

After Poels and Tiberi had done their job, Landa tried to attack and move to the fourth place in the GC ahead of Juan Ayuso but it was not enough. Vingegaard acted as a domestique and brought back Landa and paced the rest of the climb with Kuss and Roglič in his wheel. Landa and Ayuso tried later to attack again as the pace was not super high but were brought back.

In the end, it was not a straightforward day for many of the other GC contenders, with Cian Ujitdebroeks, Aleksandr Vlasov and Joao Almeida losing almost a minute to the main GC group. Kuss, Mas, Ayuso and Roglič finished together, with Landa and Vingegaard losing three and nine seconds respectively in the final metres.

Results powered by FirstCycling.com

Despite Jumbo-Visma being calm, it was a very hard final ascent of La Cruz de Linares. Jonas Vingegaard did the final climb in 24:09 min, pushing 6.60 ᵉW/Kg. Kuss, Roglič, Mas and Ayuso did 6.54 ᵉW/Kg. Kuss proved that he is not fading at all, surviving such a hard climb, and going one step closer to his first Grand Tour victory.

Jumbo-Visma again dominated on a mountain stage with an entertaining performance from Primož Roglič who attacked his teammate and race leader Sepp Kuss, with Jonas Vingegaard following the Slovenian, despite all three at that point leading the race without any other rival teams.

Altu de L’Angliru (12.20 km, 10.49%) is one of the steepest climbs in pro cycling with gradients going way over 10% in the second half of the climb. Jumbo-Visma began the day leading the Vuelta overall classification with three riders, Sepp Kuss, Jonas Vingegaard and Primož Roglič. All of them are the strongest climbers in the race which is a unique situation in the modern era of Grand Tours.

As expected it was going to be a GC day as the breakaway did not get enough gap from Jumbo’s rouleurs to stand a chance against the mighty Bahrain-Victorious train with Tiberi, Caruso, Buitrago, Poels and Landa who was fighting for the 4th spot in the GC against Ayuso and Soler. Remco Evenepoel was the last survivor of the breakaway but a minute gap before Angliru was not enough. The high pace in the GC group was one of the reasons why the gap was small as Marc Soler launched early with 52 km to go, ignoring his 6th place in the overall classification and later losing many minutes on the steep climb.

It was not a high fatigue day as Steff Cras spent 2,545 kilojoules for 2:36h before the climb, at a reasonable intensity of 14.67 kj/kg/h. A low kilojoule day from Jumbo-Visma riders tends to benefit Roglič compared to Kuss and Vingegaard, who both excel on extremely difficult days.

Bahrain-Victorious had an insanely strong team, setting a high and steady pace on Angliru. Wout Poels in the 2017 La Vuelta finished together with his then teammate Chris Froome on the hard climb, setting the fastest time that day, and finished second behind Juan Jose Cobo in 2011. Poels again was lethal on the steep ramps with Landa and the Jumbo-Visma big three were the only survivors.

After Poels finished his job and Landa started to set a lower pace, Kuss, Roglič and Vingegaard were the only ones in the front. Despite Sepp Kuss having helped Roglič in many Grand Tours and being the race leader, the Slovenian gifted the American on his 29th birthday more pain and accelerated in the final kilometres. Vingegaard was not helping Roglič and was sitting on his wheel, while Kuss was fighting for the red jersey against his teammates.

Roglič won his 12th Vuelta stage and finished with Vingegaard who probably could have gone faster, while Kuss with a little help from Landa lost 19 seconds on the stage not counting bonus seconds and kept his leader’s jersey but Vingegaard (+0:08) and Roglič (+1:08) cut the gap. Ayuso lost +1:42 on Angliru to Roglič and is almost three minutes behind the Slovenian in the GC as the best non-Jumbo-Visma rider.

Results powered by FirstCycling.com

The legendary Robert Heras record of 41 minutes was not broken but it was close. Roglič and Vingegaard climbed Angliru in 41:24 min, pushing 6.43 ᵉW/Kg. Many riders broke their 40+ minute power records in this race as the climb was steep, well paced by Bahrain-Victorious early, relatively low kilojoules before the base and at low altitude. Vingegaard if he went full gas and attacked Roglič probably could have broken Heras’ record. The level of climbing is extremely high as Roglič, Vingegaard, Landa, Kuss and Poels beat Chris Horner’s incredible time (42:15 min) set in the 2013 La Vuelta which until this day was the second fastest ascent on Angliru. Roglič and Vingegaard were 29 seconds faster than Heras on the steep section of the climb, which means that most of the time was lost against the legendary Spaniard during the first six kilometres which were not that steep and had the pace set by Bahrain. Roglič and Vingegaard on the steep part did 6.75 ᵉW/Kg for 26:28 min.

Kuss is the shape of his life and has performed exceptionally on mountain stages in this Vuelta, protecting his leader's jersey from his teammates Roglič and Vingegaard. There are two more mountain days left on stages 18 and 20. Tomorrow it will be a hard mountain top finish on La Cruz de Linares (8.3 km, 8.5%), where Roglič likely might try again to attack with Vingegaard following his wheel and Kuss trying his best not to lose the lead.

Jonas Vingegaard is continuing to impress in the 2023 season. The Dane attacked early on the final climb in La Vuelta Stage 16 and beat his GC rivals on the short Bejes climb by more than a minute thanks in part to a disorganised chase behind him and his high pace.

It was a typical Vuelta stage, just 120-kilometres after the final rest day with an irregular low-altitude climb in the finale. Bejes at 4.9 kilometres at 8.5% gradient offered a chance for early attacks from the GC group as it included extended 10%+ gradient sections at the start and finish.

Jumbo-Visma before the climb had everything under control. The breakaway was caught and Attila Valter paced the first part of Bejes as hard as he could with Vingegaard, Kuss and Roglič behind him. It was clear that Roglič or Vingegaard from Jumbo-Visma would attack as the Hungarian champion was the last remaining mountain domestique with still 10 minutes remaining on the climb.

Like on Tourmalet, it was the Tour de France champion Vingegaard who attacked very early before the first steep section ended. It was similar to O Gran Camiño where Valter was the last man before the Dane launched on the steep and short climbs, with no one challenging him. Vingegaard immediately opened a huge gap and in the GC group, there was not a single team that began to chase with commitment. UAE-Emirates rider Finn Fisher Black even dropped everyone from the GC group after Mas let his wheel go, but stayed in no man’s land for the whole climb as he did not have the watts to close the gap to Vingegaard.

UAE was not united for Ayuso, with Almeida refusing to pull and then electing to attack whilst Soler was probably trying his best to not drop as both of them were fighting for a high position in the overall classification. The chase continued to be disorganised and the GC group was so slow that even Valter returned to the group, while Vingegaard was gaining a lot of time on the short climb. Some non-GC threats like Bauke Mollema, Michael Storer, Wout Poels et al even attacked the group to fight for minor places on the stage.

Clearly, Primož Roglič was not happy with the situation and attacked the GC favourites with Mas and Ayuso chasing the Slovenian down, with the red jersey Kuss suffering in the wheels.

In the end, Vingegaard won the stage, beating Fisher-Black by 43 seconds on a 13-minute climb, while Jumbo-Visma’s biggest rivals Ayuso and Mas lost 61 seconds to the Dane not gaining a single bonus second. Kuss lost four seconds to the Ayuso, Mas, Vlasov and Roglič group but remained as the GC leader. Before the mighty Angliru stage, Vingegaard is only 29 seconds behind the American, while Ayuso is more than two minutes behind the Dane.

Results powered by FirstCycling.com

All the climbing conditions were perfect – low altitude climb, easy stage after a rest day and low 18 degrees temperature for Spain in early September. Jonas Vingegaard climbed Puerto de Bejes in 13:11 min pushing an estimated 7.40 ᵉW/Kg – one of the greatest unipuerto climbing performances in cycling history. Finn Fisher-Black who chased Vingegaard alone and finished 43 seconds behind pushed 6.96 ᵉW/Kg. The GC group with Roglič, Ayuso, Mas and Vlasov did only 6.65 ᵉW/Kg but could have gone much faster had there been a proper chase.

The climb was irregular and had flatter sections, which makes calculation more difficult than on other climbs, but Vingegaard has already done such performances multiple times in 2023 and on Bejes the conditions were absolutely perfect for high W/Kg.

Vingegaard is having perhaps the greatest climbing season of all time outside of Marco Pantani. Unlike in previous years, in 2023 Vingegaard has been lethal on shorter, punchy Spanish climbs, winning convincingly in O Gran Camiño on Monte Trega and Alto do Castelo as well as destroying the field in the Basque Country on Alto de Arrate - Izua. Tomorrow the rider's face a different prospect, the fearsome Angliru, with 6km at over 13% gradient. It will be interesting to see whether Vingegaard will be unleashed, if Kuss can keep the red jersey or whether Ayuso or Mas can make known their bid for the GC podium.

It was another GC day in La Vuelta, as Jumbo-Visma controlled the breakaway and did not let it fight for a stage win. After Remco Evenepoel paced hard for most of the steep Xorret de Cati, Primož Roglič was able to outsprint him at the end of the hard stage.

Stage 8 started in the Alicante region, with the first part of the stage familiar to most of the riders as almost every team in the previous winter did at least one or two training camps in the area. Despite many good climbers forming a strong and large breakaway after Vall d’Ebo, it was going to be a GC day as Jumbo-Visma with the help of Groupama-FDJ worked hard before and did not let the gap grow too big.

Xorret de Cati has been used multiple times in La Vuelta and it is one of the steepest climbs in pro racing with a 500 metre section of 17.9%. Drafting still matters on 13%+ gradients but it is evidently not as significant as on 6-8% gradients. After the climb there was a three kilometre fast descent and sprint finish.

When the peloton arrived at the bottom of the climb the breakaway was almost caught. Emmanuel Buchmann before the climb did 3,418 kilojoules for 4:01 h, which is 14.58 kj/kg/h. A very high intensity for a mountain stage, especially in La Vuelta, as Jumbo-Visma were pacing hard on the early slopes with Jan Tratnik and Attila Valter. Jonas Vingegaard was sitting behind Valter, while Sepp Kuss was not used as a domestique as he has a three minute advantage over the big GC favourites and a great chance to take the red jersey from Lenny Martinez who was dropped early from the GC group. After Valter finished and Jumbo-Visma had no domestiques left, Quick-Step paced hard with Louis Vervaeke and Mattia Cattaneo as the last climbing domestique. It was not a good day for the slender Jan Hirt who was dropped early.

Quick-Step were confident in Remco Evenepoel, who accelerated early with 5.1 km to go, reducing the group to a handful of the best climbers. Kuss was feeling strong and later launched past Evenepoel who kept calm and was holding his tempo with Vingegaard and Roglič in his wheel. With them still in the group was Enric Mas, Juan Ayuso, while Joao Almeida, who crashed early on the stage, and Marc Soler were trying their best not to lose contact.

Evenepoel brought back Kuss slowly. When 400 metres were left in the climb Evenepoel upped the tempo and Kuss, Almeida and Soler could not keep up with the acceleration. Jumbo-Visma did not try to launch with Roglič and Vingegaard and let the Belgian champion do his own pace. The tempo was really hard and everyone was on the limit or very close to it.

Evenepoel did Xorret de Cati in 13 minutes, pushing 7.12 ᵉW/Kg into a headwind on the climb. According to our calculations, Mas, Vingegaard and Ayuso saved 0.07 ᵉW/Kg in the draft of Evenepoel whilst Roglič only saved 0.05 ᵉW/Kg, as he was half-wheeling Evenepoel most of the time and did not sit in the perfect draft.

This was the fastest ascent of Xorret de Cati since 2000, when the Banesto climber Eladio Jimenez in the first week did the climb in 12:42 min with 7.22 ᵉW/Kg. Wout Poels in 2016 won a Volta a Valencia stage on Xorret de Cati, but today was six seconds faster with 6.78 ᵉW/Kg, good enough for ninth on the stage.

When Evenepoel is in good shape he is great on steep and short climbs like in the 2022 San Sebastian Klasikoa where he dropped everyone on Erlaitz (3.8 km, 10.74%) - a very similar effort to today. The ᵉW/Kg today was more impressive than the La Vuelta 2022 effort on Les Praeres (3.77 km, 13.29%) and Roglič, Ayuso and Evenepoel probably could have pushed even a little bit more on the climb but it did not finish right at the top and they had to worry about their competitors in their wheel.

Evenepoel did the whole descent and the 3km part after the climb at the front, keeping the pace high and preventing more attacks like on the climb. After the finish the Belgian champion stated that he did not know the GC group were fighting for a stage win, which might be the reason why he did the leadout for Primož Roglič who took his 11th La Vuelta stage victory. Evenepoel finished with another six bonus seconds, while Kuss became the new red jersey as Lenny Martinez lost more than a minute to him alongside Cian Uijtdebroeks who had a bad day. The GC favourites are still very close but the gaps will be bigger after the 25.8 km ITT on Stage 10.

Results powered by FirstCycling.com

Stage 6 brought the second mountain test of this Vuelta, with Remco Evenepoel losing some time on the steep Javalambre climb but narrowly remaining ahead of his main rivals in GC. Jumbo-Visma had a wonderful day, as Sepp Kuss won from a very strong breakaway and almost become the race leader whilst Primož Roglič and Jonas Vingegaard were the strongest from the GC group.

It was a hard 183 kilometre day with a steep finish up Alto de Javalambre (7.35 km, 9.52%). 4,000 metres of total elevation gain and hot weather made this a big GC day despite the solitary Category 1 climb.

In the first half of the stage, before the TV cameras were rolling, a huge breakaway formed with multiple fringe GC threats. Sepp Kuss, Lenny Martinez, Mikel Landa, Marc Soler, Wout Poels, Romain Bardet, Steff Cras, Hugh Carthy, Augusto Einer Rubio, Santiago Buitrago, David de la Cruz and many more strong names were in this star-packed breakaway all of whom on 2 minutes or less behind Evenepoel. Unfortunately Jay Vine crashed out of the race early and had to abandon La Vuelta, a big blow for UAE Team Emirates.

The breakaway gained enough lead to make one of the riders the new virtual race leader, the young French talent Lenny Martinez. He and Sepp Kuss were the favourites for the stage victory as they had not lost much time to Remco Evenepoel in the previous stages and showed great performance on the first climbing day in Andorra. Almost a four minute lead before the steep slopes was enough for them to gain multiple minutes over the top GC riders. Thymen Arensman in the GC group before Javalambre spent 4,153 kilojoules for 4:29h, which is 13.41 kj/kg/h. A hard day in the saddle but not too intense compared to a Grand Tour Queen stage like Col de la Loze this year in the Tour de France, where the riders raced at around 15 kj/kg/h before the final 10km from Meribel.

Meanwhile in the GC group, Soudal – Quick Step were not pacing particularly hard with Cattaneo, Vervaeke and Hirt in the train. They set a steady pace like INEOS (as Sky) did in the past, reducing the GC group to around 20 riders. However when Roglič accelerated from the group, Remco Evenepoel was distanced immediately, together with Geraint Thomas and it was clear that Quick-Step had been riding at a comfortable pace for the Belgian as he was not feeling particularly well on the day. Evenepoel crashed hard after his stage victory in Andorra and that might have cost him something in such an attritional stage.

With Roglič in front, Jonas Vingegaard had the luxury to draft behind Juan Ayuso, Enric Mas and Cian Uijtdebroeks who all were chasing the Slovenian. The Jumbo-Visma GC stars today unveiled their multiple leader strategy and it worked to great effect.

In the breakaway group it also was the Jumbo-Visma show, as Sepp Kuss accelerated and flew past everyone, untouchable after such a hard day and heading to his second La Vuelta stage victory. Lenny Martinez was the biggest threat for Kuss’ red jersey hopes as he worked with Romain Bardet in the second group.

While the cameras were showing Kuss and Roglič, Vingegaard bridged the gap to his Slovenian teammate with Mas on his wheel, whilst the Hungarian champion Attila Valter was waiting for them as a satellite rider to give a pull for a few minutes. Jumbo-Visma could not have wanted for more from the stage and they were absolutely dominating at this point.

After Valter finished his job, Roglič and Vingegaard were riding together without Mas on their wheel like in Trofeo Baracchi. Roglič looked stronger than Vingegaard who very likely is not in his Tour de France shape as it only finished over a month ago before La Vuelta whilst Roglič has had the ideal Vuelta preparation. In the end they seemed to lose time against their rivals in the last kilometre, as Juan Ayuso almost caught them and Uijtdebroeks and Mas were not far away. Evenepoel regained strength after getting dropped, like on the Sierra la Pandera stage in 2022,and did not lose even a minute in the end.

Sepp Kuss won from the breakaway but he slowed down a bit in the final metres and gave high fives to the crowd. Lenny Martinez finished 26 seconds behind in second place and beat Kuss’ by 8 seconds in the GC and became the new red jersey. Evenepoel lost only 32 seconds to Roglič and Vingegaard meaning he remains as the highest rider from the GC favourites with Mas, Vingegaard, Roglič, Ayuso, Uijtdebroeks and Almeida all being within 30 seconds. The gaps are still close and nothing is decided, just like last year when Evenepoel had a few bad days. Martinez and Kuss are almost 3 minutes ahead of the big GC riders but it will be hard for them both hold this gap with the 25 kilometre time trial on Stage 10 and many hard stages to come.

Results powered by FirstCycling.com

The ᵉW/Kg were not high on Javalambre as Soudal-Quick Step did not pace it hard and Roglič attacked late in the climb. Roglič and Vingegaard pushed 6.32 ᵉW/Kg for 23:10 min on the steep part of the climb. Evenepoel did 6.18 ᵉW/Kg for 23:42, similar to the stage winner Kuss’ 6.12 ᵉW/Kg for 23:54. Miguel Angel Lopez in La Vuelta 2019 was 31 seconds faster than Roglič with 6.51 ᵉW/Kg on this climb, as Roglič on that stage lost 12 seconds to the flying Colombian. Kuss from the GC group in 2019 performed very well finishing together with Nairo Quintana and being faster by 21 seconds than from the breakaway in 2023.

GC Kuss is one of the best climbers in the world and in theory he might be capable of finishing very high in the GC especially as he thrives on the hard stages to come. Kuss might become the race leader after the Xorret de Cati rampas inhumanas on Stage 8 but on the the 25.8 km ITT on Stage 10 he might lose two or even three minutes to Evenepoel. After that there are no time-trials but Kuss is a Jumbo-Visma rider and with Roglič and Vingegaard on the team someone must work at the front of the GC group on climbs and there might be not enough freedom for the American Eagle who is doing his third Grand Tour in 2023, with no signs of slowing down yet.