VUELTA'23 Stage 6: Crusher Kuss Takes Stage

Stage Report: A strange day in la Vuelta with a big break going away early. Sepp Kuss was in the lead group as was Lenny Martinez. Kuss put in his winning move on the final climb to hold off Martinez for the win, but the young Frenchman took the overall lead from Remco Evenepoel, who wasn’t on a good day.

The final K of stage 6

Sepp Kuss won the sixth stage of la Vuelta. On the final climb, the Jumbo-Visma rider turned out to be the best of a leading group of 42 riders who had broken away early in the stage. The American stayed ahead of Lenny Martinez of Groupama-FDJ, who grabbed the leader’s red jersey. Primoz Roglič and Jonas Vingegaard dealt a blow to Remco Evenepoel on the final climb.

Stage win and nearly the red jersey for Sepp Kuss

Race director, Fernando Escartín: “The climb up to the Astrophysical Observatory of Javalambre becomes tougher in its final slopes, as seen the first time we finished a stage there, back in 2019. Without a doubt, this stage could well mark the first notable differences in the general classification.”

Stage 6 profile

Stage 6 of the Vuelta a España promised a spectacular finish on the observatory of Javalambre. The Pico del Buitre, as the climb is called, is a kind of Spanish Planche des Belles Filles. As the climb progresses it gets steeper and steeper. In the last kilometres, the gradient barely drops below 10%.

The leader’s jerseys at the start

Kilometre 0

The peloton didn’t want to wait for the last kilometres and the final climb and made the stage hard from the start of the day. A battle took place between the riders to get into the ‘break of the day’. Wout Poels, Andres Camargo, Thomas De Gendt and Rui Costa were amongst the action, but after 60 kilometres there was still no lead group.

There is light at the end of the tunnel

The peloton coming out of the tunnel

With 116 kilometres to go it was Sylvain Moniquet, Jefferson Cepeda, Javier Romo, Paul Ourselin, Jésus Herrada and Oier Lazkano who got away from the peloton. The six in front were then joined by 36 other riders, forming a leading group of 42.

The feed

Jay Vine crashed out

Among the 42, there were a number of dangerous riders for the GC: Lenny Martinez, Marc Soler, Sepp Kuss, Wout Poels and David de la Cruz were close enough to take the overall lead. Kuss wasn’t the only Jumbo-Visma rider, there was also Jan Tratnik, Attila Valter and Dylan van Baarle, who at one point even had 7 minutes on the peloton.

A big break got away

Jumbo-Visma were well represented in the break

Soudal Quick-Step and Evenepoel didn’t panic, even though they lost Andrea Bagioli halfway through the stage due to illness. With Louis Vervaeke and Mattia Cattaneo, the team had two riders in the break, so they could let Movistar and INEOS Grenadiers do the work in the peloton. In the run-up to the Pico del Buitre, the lead of the large group came down. At the foot of the climb, the gap was only 3:45.

Before the start Remco Evenepoel said he didn’t mind losing the red jersey, but by how much?

The big break had 7 minutes at one point

On the Pico del Buitre, the leading group and the group of favourites, held steady for a long time. At 4.2 kilometres from the finish, the first attack came in the leading group. Einer Rubio put in an acceleration on one of the first steep sections and took a 25 second lead, but he was countered by Kuss, Bardet and Martinez. In the last kilometres Kuss was the strongest. At the finish line the American was a few seconds short of taking the red jersey, but it was Martinez who was the overall leader by 8 seconds.

Sepp Kuss went for the win

A well deserved stage win for Kuss

In the chase group of favourites, the stage took a surprising turn at 4 kilometres from the summit finish. After an attack by Primoz Roglič, Evenepoel couldn’t follow. The Slovenian was joined by Vingegaard a little later and together they put a gap of 31 seconds between them and the Belgian. Juan Ayuso and Cian Uijtdebroeks were the best GC riders behind Roglič and Vingegaard.

Young Frenchman Lenny Martinez came in 26 seconds behind Kuss to take the overall lead

Roglič and Vingegaard took time from Evenepoel

Stage winner and 2nd overall, Sepp Kuss (Jumbo-Visma): “It was an incredibly hard stage. We wanted to try and go in the breakaway just to test Quick-Step. We knew it would be a hard day to control. That was the primary objective. We were in there with Dylan [van Baarle], Jan [Tratnik], Attila [Valter] and they rode super, I have to thank them a lot for the work they did. The whole day I felt super super good. I was only thinking about when to go, when to try and make the difference. The whole climb I was just enjoying the environment that we have in the Vuelta. It’s always a special race for me. No, no, I’m not here to win La Vuelta! For me, to win a stage is amazing. Durango is a town of mountain bike legends so I knew Lenny Martinez’s father. It’s very cool to be racing with his son but it’s also a realisation of how much older I am than this young guy!”

Remco Evenepoel – Down but not out

2nd on the stage and overall leader, Lenny Martinez (Groupama-FDJ): “It’s really incredible for me. I had in my mind at the start of the race that it would be amazing to take the jersey and it happened today. Thanks to my team, they rode very strong for me in the breakaway and I’m very happy. We changed plans because we had a big lead at the bottom of the final climb. It was thanks to Rudy [Molard] and Michael [Storer] who rode really hard all day to make up time in the general standings and then battle for the stage win and the jersey. They sacrificed their options and I want to thank them. I’m very happy to have this jersey and it’s a team race. I still can’t understand what’s happening to me. It’s a great race. I’ve been thinking about my Spanish family too.”

New overall leader – Lenny Martinez

# Stay PEZ for the weekend fight in Spain. #

Vuelta a España Stage 6 Result:1. Sepp Kuss (USA) Jumbo-Visma in 4:27:292. Lenny Martinez (Fra) Groupama-FDJ at 0:263. Romain Bardet (Fra) dsm-firmenich at 0:314. Mikel Landa (Spa) Bahrain-Victorious at 0:465. Marc Soler (Spa) UAE Team Emirates6. Wout Poels (Ned) Bahrain-Victorious at 1:037. Einer Augusto Rubio (Col) Movistar at 1:058. Cristián Rodríguez (Spa) Arkéa Samsic at 1:129. Steff Cras (Bel) TotalEnergies10. Jefferson Alveiro Cepeda (Ecu) Caja Rural-Seguros RGA at 1:26.

Vuelta a España Overall After Stage 6:1. Lenny Martinez (Fra) Groupama-FDJ in 21:40:352. Sepp Kuss (USA) Jumbo-Visma at 0:083. Marc Soler (Spa) UAE Team Emirates at 0:514. Wout Poels (Ned) Bahrain-Victorious at 1:415. Steff Cras (Bel) TotalEnergies at 1:486. Mikel Landa (Spa) Bahrain-Victorious at 1:587. Jefferson Alveiro Cepeda (Ecu) Caja Rural-Seguros RGA at 2:068. David de la Cruz (Spa) Astana Qazaqstan at 2:239. Remco Evenepoel (Bel) Soudal Quick-Step at 2:4710. Enric Mas (Spa) Movistar at 2:50.