Wout van Aert gets his win at Vuelta after Visma masterclass

Wout van Aert (Visma | Lease a Bike) won stage 13 of the Vuelta a España in Loja, going clear with 3.8km remaining and holding off Valentin Paret-Peintre (Soudal Quick-Step) in the two-up sprint.

Paret-Peintre was the only rider able to follow and sat on Van Aert's wheel through the closing kilometres before launching his sprint 300 metres out. He was beaten, and remains one Vuelta stage short of winning at all three Grand Tours.

The win extends Van Aert's lead in the points classification, where he went into the stage on 194 points to Matthew Brennan's 137, and adds to the ten mountain points he took earlier in the day.

Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain Victorious) still leads the mountains classification on 58 points, with Van Aert second on 40. Enric Mas keeps the red jersey, 1:45 ahead of Primož Roglič and 2:06 ahead of Felix Gall.

The fight for the break produced the largest escape of the Vuelta so far, with 43 riders eventually going clear on a day that reached 39 degrees.

Van Aert led over the category one Alto de la Venta de la Cebada, taking the maximum ten points on offer ahead of Santiago Buitrago and Lorenzo Fortunato. That move took him to second in the mountains classification behind Buitrago.

Pavel Sivakov (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) abandoned with 110km remaining, the day after being the last man caught on the Calar Alto climb. On the other hand, Felix Gall lost a key domestique when Gregor Mühlberger (Decathlon CMA CGM) went down in a crash and abandoned with 152 kilometres to go. 

Brennan took the intermediate sprint, ahead of Cristián Rodríguez and Andreas Leknessund, collecting 20 points that lifted him to second in the points classification behind his own teammate, Van Aert.

Nine riders were clear with 10km remaining: Finn Fisher-Black (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), Vermaerke, Van Aert, Brennan, Bisiaux, Valentin Paret-Peintre (Soudal Quick-Step), Simon Dalby (Uno-X Mobility), Albanese and Widar. They led a chase group of 26 by just over a minute, with the peloton four and a half minutes down.

Movistar, Netcompany Ineos and EF Education-EasyPost all spent time on the front of the bunch, though the gap never came down enough to threaten the leaders.

The attacks came in waves over the last 8km. Vermaerke went at 7.3km to go with Van Aert on his wheel, Bisiaux countered at 7.8km, and Dalby accelerated at 5.6km before attacking again with four kilometres to go with Brennan marking him. Bisiaux went once more at 3.9km, again with Brennan on the wheel.

Van Aert made his move at 3.8km. Only Paret-Peintre could go with him. The Frenchman took his turn at the front, then tracked the Belgian's wheel through the final two kilometres before opening his sprint inside the last 300 metres.