Roglic rode away from Kuss on the Angliru and admits, "It's a somewhat strange feeling"

Primoz Roglic won the monstrous Vuelta stage to Alto de l'Angliru. The Slovenian rider from Jumbo-Visma pulled away along with his teammate Jonas Vingegaard while fellow leader Sepp Kuss was left behind in the background.

In 2020, the Vuelta also finished atop the Angliru. Back then, Roglic had a less favorable day. He started the day in the red jersey but had to relinquish it to Richard Carapaz. Three years later, he got his revenge on the Beast of Asturias. He rode away, alongside Vingegaard, and claimed victory. "Well, it makes sense. You get a little older, you get a little better," Roglic said in the post-race interview. "It was a bit more enjoyable to climb up this time than a few years ago."

A noteworthy phase in the stage was when Bahrain-Victorious was leading the peloton at a high pace. The Jumbo-Visma riders could stay in their slipstream until the steepest sections emerged. "I just let Bahrain do the work at the front until the pace wasn't high enough anymore. Then I thought: okay, now it's up to me to set the pace."

Roglic: "I've already talked to Sepp; it's a strange feeling"

Initially, Vingegaard and Kuss rode back together to Roglic. However, a crucial point in the race followed soon after, the moment when Kuss had to let go of Vingegaard and Roglic with just two kilometers to go. "It wasn't really a tactical race. The final climb is so steep that I pulled away while riding at my own tempo. Even when Sepp lost contact, I kept my own pace. We've already talked after the race. It's obviously something strange and it's a strange feeling, but yeah, on such a difficult climb, everyone is just racing as fast as possible to the finish."

This doesn't mean that Jumbo-Visma is definitively out of the competition. Kuss remains a leader in the yellow team. "Of course, he's still the leader. He's also wearing the red jersey. I told him he needs to keep fighting and believing. If he does that, he can make it."

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