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Portugal’s Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) held off Danish race leader Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) at the top of the brutal summit finish of Angliru to win stage 13 of the Vuelta a Espana Friday.The top two in the general classification battled it out for the stage win, leaving the rest behind in the final five km.Almeida did all the work on the climb and stayed ahead of Vingegaard in the sprint to the line.“This is a special one, I still don’t believe it,” Almeida said after the stage.“I just put my pace from the bottom and I just did my bit the best I could.“Jonas was always on my wheel, we were both on the limit and I was waiting for his attack anytime.”Thanks to the bonus seconds for the stage win, Almeida closed the gap to the red jersey to 46 seconds, with Britain’s Tom Pidcock (Q36.5 Pro Cycling) losing time but holding onto third overall, two minutes and 18 seconds off the leader.Australian Jai Hindley (Red Bull-BORA Hansgrohe) finished third on the 202.7km ride from Cabezon de la Sal to Alto de L’Angliru, 28 seconds behind the leading pair, just ahead of Vingegaard’s teammate Sepp Kuss.Kuss, Vuelta winner in 2023, almost lost his red jersey on Angliru that year when teammates Vingegaard and Primoz Roglic left him behind, with Roglic edging out the Dane at the finish.‘HARDEST CLIMB IN THE WORLD’Vingegaard suffered a similar fate this time around, despite looking like he was just biding his time, tucked in behind Almeida as they suffered on the final twists and turns of the infamous climb, but his attack never came.“I thought he was going to pass me on the finish line,” Almeida said. “I took the last corner and then it’s hard to pass. I think this is the hardest climb in the world, its crazy, I’m really sore.”Almeida’s pain gained him his first individual Vuelta stage win along with four seconds in the GC, and topping Angliru ahead of the race favourite may just give him the confidence he needs to go for the title.“I still have a lot of time to make up,” Almeida said.“He’s looking phenomenal so it’s gonna be a hard task but we never give up.”Pidcock also never gave up, despite getting dropped by the leaders, and came in seventh, but the race does look set to be a fight between Vingegaard and Almeida.Bob Jungels of Luxembourg (Ineos Grenadiers) put in a brave battle, part of a large breakaway group early in the stage, and the last man to be caught.At the foot of Angliru, with Nicolya Vinokurov still alongside him, pro-Palestinian protesters delayed the pair’s progress before police cleared the small group from the road.Junegles was left behind in the final seven km by the main GC contenders, and then it became a race between the top two.Today’s stage 14 is a shorter 135.9km ride from Aviles with another summit finish at Alto de La Farrapona.

Australian Jay Vine (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) went for broke five kilometres from the summit finish to win stage 10 of the Vuelta a Espana Tuesday, repeating his stage six victory, while race favourite Jonas Vingegaard reclaimed the leader’s red jersey.Vine caught and overtook Spain’s Pablo Castrillo (Movistar) on the climb to the finish of the 175.3km ride from Parque de la Naturaleza Sendaviva to El Ferial Larra Belagua, raising two fingers as he crossed the line after his second individual stage win of this year’s race.The 29-year-old – mountains classification winner last year and this year’s leader of the category – also won two stages in 2022.“Winning is so, so hard, and it’s such an incredible feeling when it happens,” Vine said.“I don’t think I’ll ever get used to winning, because it’s just unbelievably hard.”Castrillo held on to take second spot, 35 seconds behind Vine, with the Spaniard’s compatriot and teammate Javier Romo finishing third.Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) had lost the red jersey to Norway’s Torstein Traeen (Bahrain Victorious) after stage six, but having begun Tuesday’s stage 37 seconds off the lead, he opened a gap to Traeen on the final climb to move 26 seconds ahead in the general classification.Following Monday’s rest day, Tuesday’s stage was a mostly flat ride, with one category three climb along the way before the category one finish, and any early breaks had all been quashed by the peloton.A group, which eventually included 30 riders, made the decisive break 72km from the end, and they were allowed to get away, though the leading group was whittled down as the race wore on.There were attacks from the breakaway, with Romo trying to get away, but when Castrillo made his move with seven kilometres remaining, the Spaniard looked set for victory, but Vine reacted and powered past the leader for another stage win.The riders in the strung out peloton were never going to contest the stage win, but the GC battle commenced on the final climb and Vingegaard, who had already closed the gap to Traeen by winning the previous stage, returned to where everyone expected the Dane to be.Vingegaard was part of a small group which began passing some of the breakaway riders towards the finish, and his 11th-place finish on the stage brings an end to Traeen’s time in the red jersey.

Jonas Vingegaard reclaimed the overall lead of the Vuelta a Espana on the fifth-stage team time-trial Wednesday, while Team UAE riders Juan Ayuso and Joao Almeida climbed to second and third in the standings.As the 21-day race arrived in Spain after four stages in Italy and France, the leaderboard was reshuffled with the three race favourites moving to the top of the deck.Team UAE won the 24.1km stage around Figueres in 25min and 26sec, with Vingegard’s Visma just eight seconds off the pace and Giulio Ciccone’s Lidl-Trek a further second slower in third on the day.The result leaves two-time Tour de France winner Vingegaard top of the overall standings, while UAE have Ayuso, Almeida and Marc Soler all eight seconds behind, with Italian climber Ciccone rounding out the top five.Almeida said the result was a confidence boost for his team.“The gaps are small and we need to be realistic. But it was full gas for everybody today. It would have been nicer to have the red jersey but we are getting closer and closer to it,” said the Portuguese.Some 15 national time-trial champions were sporting their country’s colours on the course, where the eight-rider teams needed to finish the race with four riders together.Team Lotto were the first down the starters’ ramp from outside a giant pink castle decorated with croissants and boiled eggs designed by the surrealist artist Salvador Dali, who used to live in it. Tom Pidcock’s outfit Q36.5 did better than expected at 22sec on the British rider’s first outing in the team event.“It’s not bad, I mean, I think we did a really great time-trial. It’s my first as a pro, the first for this team,” said Pidcock, the Olympic mountain bike champion.“The last 5km was horrible. I kept missing the back. When someone pulls out and you mistime it, then I was dying,” said Pidcock, who dropped to 13th overall at 30sec.Overnight leader David Gaudu slipped to sixth at 16sec, while Egan Bernal of Ineos dropped from fifth to 10th at 22sec.The race next enters the Pyrenees with two tough mountain stages.

Jonas Vingegaard reclaimed the overall lead of the Vuelta a Espana on the fifth-stage team time-trial Wednesday, while Team UAE riders Juan Ayuso and Joao Almeida climbed to second and third in the standings. As the 21-day race arrived in Spain after four stages in Italy and France, the leaderboard was reshuffled with the three race favourites moving to the top of the deck. Team UAE won the 24.1km stage around Figueres in 25min and 26sec, with Vingegard’s Visma just eight seconds off the pace and Giulio Ciccone’s Lidl-Trek a further second slower in third on the day. The result leaves two-time Tour de France winner Vingegaard top of the overall standings, while UAE have Ayuso, Almeida and Marc Soler all eight seconds behind, with Italian climber Ciccone rounding out the top five. Almeida said the result was a confidence boost for his team. “The gaps are small and we need to be realistic. But it was full gas for everybody today. It would have been nicer to have the red jersey but we are getting closer and closer to it,” said the Portuguese. Some 15 national time-trial champions were sporting their country’s colours on the course, where the eight-rider teams needed to finish the race with four riders together. Team Lotto were the first down the starters’ ramp from outside a giant pink castle decorated with croissants and boiled eggs designed by the surrealist artist Salvador Dali, who used to live in it. Tom Pidcock’s outfit Q36.5 did better than expected at 22sec on the British rider’s first outing in the team event. “It’s not bad, I mean, I think we did a really great time-trial. It’s my first as a pro, the first for this team,” said Pidcock, the Olympic mountain bike champion. “The last 5km was horrible. I kept missing the back. When someone pulls out and you mistime it, then I was dying,” said Pidcock, who dropped to 13th overall at 30sec. Overnight leader David Gaudu slipped to sixth at 16sec, while Egan Bernal of Ineos dropped from fifth to 10th at 22sec. The race next enters the Pyrenees with two tough mountain stages.