2023 Vuelta a España Stage 20 Results & Recap
Stage 20 of the 2023 Vuelta a España is in the books. The final results and standings are below, followed by our recap of how the race unfolded.
Race Recap
Poels outsmarts late breakaway for win
Wout Poels (TBV) won the penultimate stage of the Vuelta a Espana after a late charge to the line which caught his breakaway companions off guard and forced Remco Evenepoel (SOQ) to chase the flying Dutchman to the line. Evenepoel narrowly missed out on his fourth victory in the race, finishing second. Spanish rider Pelayo Sanchez (Burgos-BH) took third over the line.
"I think I’m like a bottle of wine, every year I get older I get better! Poels said. "That’s pretty amazing especially in a really hard stage and it’s amazing to beat a rider like Evenepoel in a break. I’m super happy. I knew there was a corner coming up with 350 metres so I thought if I entered that one first and went flat out to the finish, I have a pretty good sprinter as a climber… And I just can’t believe this. Today we targeted this stage. It was really hard to get in the break. You could see all these good riders with G [Geraint Thomas], Remco…You have to make a plan. I thought in the steep part I would go full gas and see what happens."
Sepp Kuss and the rest of the peloton crossed the line almost 10 minutes behind the break, but has sealed his victory in the 2023 La Vuelta after crossing the line celebrating with teammates Jonas Vingegaard and Primoz Roglic.
"I’m super relieved! I almost made it," Kuss said. "It was perfectly in control with the guys in the beginning. Robert [Gesink] and Dylan [van Baarle] were pulling 90% of the stage. It was a long hard day and they were up there all day so just big hats off to them, they were amazing. And then Attila [Valter] was there on the last climb and Primoz [Roglic] did a lot of work for me there on the last climb and on the flat as well with Jonas [Vingegaard]. That’s just something I never imagined. It was a super special moment to be able to relax that much in the final kilometre of a mountain stage with your two teammates is really cool. It hasn’t sunk in yet. And then being with my family was the most special."\n
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