Kevin Vauquelin (Arkéa- B&B Hotels) attacked the break on the second ascent of San Luca to take a career-first grand tour win at the 2024 Tour de France, but it was a preview of future GC battles that really animated the day.
Stage 1 of the 2024 Tour de France rolled out from Florence, Italy today. In what was said to be one of the hardest opening days in the history of the race, it was Romain Bardet and his DSM Firmenich PostNL teammate Frank van den Broek that made the opening salvo, crossing the line together just 100m ahead of a surging peloton.
The finale of the 2023 Vuelta a Espana was a hard fought sprint with Kaden Groves (Alpecin Deceuninck) besting GC contendor Remco Evenepoel at the line mere seconds ahead of the peloton. In a show of unity, race winner Sepp Kuss of the United States crossed the line arm in arm with his Jumbo Visma teammates Primoz Roglic and Jonas Vingegaard.
At Saturday dawned in Spain, Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step) looked on track to capture another stage win in the 2023 Vuelta a Espana, but at the end of the day, it was Wout Poels (Bahrain Victorious) who ultimately had the legs after a gruelling day of racing in the Sierra de Guadarrama.
Alberto Dainese (DSM-Firmenich) took an emotional win on stage 19 of the 2023 Vuelta a Espana as he sprinted to victory in Iscar, after 177.5km of racing from La Bañeza.
Remco Evenepoel became one of the youngest riders in history to amass 50 pro wins taking victory in Stage 18 of the 2023 Vuelta a Espana on a tough day of racing that contained five classified climbs, including the brutally steep Puerto de la Cruz Linares, a 9.8km ascent averaging 8.6%.
Jumbo-Visma continued their domination of the 2023 Vuelta a Espana, with Primoz Roglic taking the win atop the iconic Angliru and teammates Jonas Vingegaard and Sep Kuss completing the podium. Kuss ends the day with a narrow 8 second hold on La Roja.
Jonas Vingegaard takes the win in Stage 16 of the 2023 Vuelta a Espana to move within 29 seconds of his teammate and race leader Sepp Kuss in the General Classification.
Rui Costa (Intermarché-Circus-Wanty) maneuvered perfectly to win stage 15 of the 2023 Vuelta a Espana in Lekunberri at the end of an extremely intense day of racing on Navarra roads.
Remco Evenepoel powered to his second stage win at the 2023 Vuelta a Espana, coming out on top on the last day in the Pyrenees following a massive display of strength, guts and character.