Vingegaard wins Vuelta stage as Evenepoel is dropped

Defending champion Remco Evenepoel had been dropped long before Jonas Vingegaard won the Vuelta's first summit finish on the Col du Tourmalet

Tour de France winner Jonas Vingegaard won stage 13 atop the iconic Col du Tourmalet as Jumbo-Visma strengthened their grip on the Vuelta a Espana.

Kuss, 28, remains the overall leader, with the American joined in the top three by Roglic, 33, and Vingegaard.

Defending champion Remco Evenepoel was third overnight but fell out of contention on the 135km mountain stage.

Heading into Friday, Soudal Quick-Step rider Evenepoel was one minute and nine seconds behind Kuss, with Marc Soler 26 seconds off the leader in second.

However, Evenepoel was dropped on the climb towards the Col d'Aubisque summit with about 90km remaining and the 23-year-old Belgian finished more than 27 minutes behind Vingegaard.

The stage from Formigal featured three climbs before the final ascent to the Vuelta's first summit finish on the Tourmalet, just over the Spanish border with France.

It is a mountain pass familiar to Tour de France watchers, being a regular and famous feature of that race.

The Jumbo-Visma trio were all in the leading group on the final climb before Vingegaard made the decisive break with 8km left to claim his first Vuelta stage win on his second appearance in the race.

Kuss crossed 30 seconds later, with Slovenian Roglic a further three seconds back for the Dutch team, who are trying to become the first to win all three Grand Tours in the same season.

Roglic won the Giro d'Italia in May and Vingegaard retained his Tour de France title in July.