BEJES, Spain (AP) — Tour de France champion Jonas Vingegaard won the 16th stage of the Spanish Vuelta on Tuesday to move into second place overall behind teammate Sepp Kuss.
Vingegaard, who has won the last two Tours, attacked on the ascent to the finish line of an otherwise flat ride along Spain’s picturesque northern coast. It was the Dane’s second stage victory of the three-week race that finishes in Madrid on Sunday.
Earlier in the day, Jumbo-Visma said that Belgian rider Nathan van Hooydonck, who was not participating in the Vuelta, had been in a car accident when he “became unwell” while driving on Tuesday. The Dutch team said he was receiving treatment in a hospital.
Vingegaard dedicated the win to his hospitalized teammate.
“I am just happy to win today. I mean, we had some terrible news this morning, and I wanted to win it for Nathan,” he said.
Kuss, Vingegaard and fellow Jumbo-Visma teammate Primoz Roglic, a three-time Vuelta winner, have held the top three spots in the general classification since Vingegaard won atop the Col du Tourmalet on Stage 13 when the race slipped into France.
Vingegaard’s second stage win on Tuesday in Spain’s Cantabria region moved him ahead of Roglic in the overall standings. Kuss now leads Vingegaard by 29 seconds, while Roglic is 1 minute, 33 seconds behind. The next chaser is Juan Ayuso, the UAE Team Emirates leader, at 2:33 back.
Kuss is the first American to lead a Grand Tour since Chris Horner won the 2013 Vuelta. He entered the race as a support rider for Roglic and Vingegaard, but took the red leader’s jersey on Stage 8 and has yet to relinquish it.
Kuss said the team strategy had been for Roglic to go for the stage win, but Vingegaard “attacked in the perfect moment and rode up like a bullet.”
As for which of the three Jumbo-Visma riders will be positioned to win the race, Kuss said that “the strongest should win and the third week will decide everything.”
Next up: a 124.5-kilometer (77.3-mile) ride finishing atop the Altu de L’Angliru summit, a classic Vuelta ascent, after two previous category-one mountain passes.
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