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Vuelta a Espana: Sepp Kuss Set To Win 2023 Title

Richard BoadiSeptember 16, 2023

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Sepp Kuss set to win 2023 title after Wout Poels sprints to stage 20 win.

outsprinted Remco Evenepoel to win the penultimate stage.

Poels and Evenepoel were part of an early breakaway group, which was reduced to five for a flat finish.

And Poels, 35, denied 2022 champion Evenepoel a fourth stage win this year.

Jumbo-Visma protected leader Kuss and the 29-year-old is virtually assured of securing his first Grand Tour win in Sunday’s ceremonial final stage.

With Jonas Vingegaard second in the overall standings and Primoz Roglic third, Jumbo-Visma are also set to complete the podium and become the first team to win all three Grand Tours in the same year.

Roglic won the Giro d’Italia in May before Vingegaard retained his Tour de France title in July, but both have followed team orders over the final stages to support Kuss, who has held the leader’s red jersey since stage eight.

Stage 20 was the longest stage of this year’s race, a 208km hilly ride from Manzanares El Real. While none of the ascents were above category three, there were 10 climbs before a flat eight kilometres to the finish in Guadarrama.

The initial 31-man breakaway did not feature any general classification challengers so the Jumbo-Visma riders were happy to let the gap grow.

The final climb saw Poels attempt to get away from the rest of the breakaway group with Evenepoel, who had already clinched the King of the Mountains jersey for best climber, rallying on the descent to stay in touch.

Poels launched another attack just before the final corner to get ahead of Evenepoel and held on to beat the Belgian in the final sprint.