Wout van Aert took his first day win at the Vuelta. On the 13th stage over 192.8 km to Loja, the Belgian beat the Frenchman Valentin Paret-Peintre from a breakaway group in the finish sprint. Van Aert’s Visma teammate Matthew Brennan settled for third place. In the overall ranking everything remained the same: the Spaniard Enric Mas continues to wear the red jersey 1:45 minutes ahead of Primoz Roglic and 2:06 minutes ahead Felix Gall.
Gall arrived at the finish with the peloton three minutes behind. The East Tyrolean’s lead over fourth-placed Richard Carapaz is 1:47 minutes. The Decathlon captain lost with Gregor Mühlberger but an important helper. The in-form Lower Austrian fell after around 30 km and had to give up. Before the stage, Mühlberger was ninth overall on the way to a top ten placement.
Confident finish sprint
Van Aert and Paret-Peintre broke away from a nine-man escape group around four kilometers from the finish. The sprint was a no-brainer for the classics specialist, who took his fourth stage win at the Vuelta in his career. Brennan did not intervene in the decision after three stage wins so far on this tour.
The next difficult mountain finish is on the program on Saturday. Mas goes into the 154.9 kilometer long section to the Sierra de La Pandera as the favorite – with a steep finish sprint.