'Disappointed' Vingegaard denied by Almeida on Angliru

The Angliru remains beyond the reach of Jonas Vingegaard, who had to settle for second place behind João Almeida on the most demanding mountain of the Vuelta a España, but the Dane remains in the red jersey of race leader.

Almeida piled on the pressure all the way up the climb and Vingegaard was the only man to resist his forcing on the steepest slopes. Vingegaard was unable to come past as the road flattened out in the final kilometre, and the winner’s time bonus sees Almeida cut his GC deficit to 46 seconds.

“I’m a bit disappointed that I couldn’t win the stage. The team pulled all day, and I wanted to win for them and also for my family,” Vingegaard said afterward. “But on the other hand, I could always keep up with João and a lot of other guys are now further behind, which I guess makes it easier for the coming days.”

Tom Pidcock (Q36.5) remains third overall, but the Briton is now 2:18 off Vingegaard’s maillot rojo, while Jai Hindley (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) is fourth overall at 3:00.

This Vuelta looks increasingly like a duel between Vingegaard and Almeida, and their teams vied for control of the race on stage 13. After Visma | Lease a Bike kept a tight rein on the early break, Almeida’s UAE Team Emirates-XRG squad took over the pace-making over the top of the Alto del Cordal and onto the Angliru. Despite that show of force, Vingegaard declared himself heartened by Visma’s display.

“The whole day was actually a super hard day and I think my teammates did super well pulling the whole day, with two guys keeping a break of 25 on such a short time gap,” Vingegaard said. “That’s really impressive.” 

Vingegaard confirmed that he did not gift stage victory to Almeida, acknowledging that he had simply been unable to come around the Portuguese rider as they sped towards the line.

“If I could, I would have done it, but to be honest, I was not feeling the best at that moment,” Vingegaard said. “João was on the front, and I didn’t see the moment to pass him. With the corners there, it wasn’t really possible.”

Vingegaard insisted that he hadn’t been surprised by Almeida’s show of force here – “I knew João was very strong before and today again he was very strong” – and he evinced confidence for the second instalment in the Vuelta’s Asturian summit finish doubleheader at La Farrapona on stage 14.

“I’m looking forward to tomorrow,” Vingegaard said. “I think today as a team we gained a lot of confidence that if we want to go for the win, we can go for the win. We’re in good shape. I believe in myself and that tomorrow is a new day.”