COLLADO DE LA CRUZ DE CARAVACA, Spain — German rider Lennard Kamna won the hilly ninth stage of the Spanish Vuelta and Sepp Kuss held on to the overall lead.
Kamna, of Bora-Hansgrohe, separated from a breakaway group on the final ascent to win the 184.5-kilometer (115-mile) ride from Cartagena to Collado de la Cruz de Caravaca in southeastern Spain.
Matteo Sobrero crossed 13 seconds behind, with the next riders finishing a minute later.
It was the 26-year-old Kamna´s third stage win at a Grand Tour after he won at the 2020 Tour de France and the 2022 Giro d´Italia.
Kuss slightly increased his lead over Marc Soler to 43 seconds. Third-place Lenny Martinez is 1:02 behind Kuss.
“It was a nervous day, super windy, but I came through really well,” said Kuss.
“It was really slippery and really muddy, so I think they made a good decision (to take early times).”
The Dutch team set the pace at the start of stage nine, 184.5 kilometres between Cartagena and Collado de la Cruz, breaking away with seven of their eight riders while Soudal-QuickStep’s Evenepoel and a few others stuck with them.
Defending champion Remco Evenepoel moved into fourth place overall at 2:24 back.
Three-time Vuelta winner Primoz Roglic and Mikel Landa are 2:29 adrift. Jonas Vingegaard, the two-time defending Tour champion, and Enric Mas are 2:35 back. Juan Ayuso and João Almeida are close behind.
Kuss, Roglic and Vingegaard are all teammates on the Jumbo-Visma team.
Kuss became the first American rider to lead one of the three Grand Tours since Chris Horner won the 2013 Vuelta.
Eventually the chase group caught up and the peloton reformed with around 50 kilometres to go, reeling in the break to around four minutes.
However they refused to be caught and swelled the gap to over five minutes entering the final 15 kilometres, approaching the category two summit finish of Alto Caravaca de la Cruz.
Kamna kicked on with Matteo Sobrero in pursuit, dropping the rest of the break, but the German held him off with ease.
“I’m super happy about it, I’ve worked really hard the last couple of months,” said Kamna.
“I tried to make it through the echelons as quick as possible without spending too much energy.
“At the end it was tricky with the climb always going up and down.”
The race resuming on Tuesday for stage 10, a 25-kilometre individual time trial in Valladolid.
This is the 78th edition of the Vuelta, which ends in Madrid on September 17 after 21 stages and 3,153.8 kilometres.
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