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Primoz Roglic
Photo:
MIGUEL RIOPA / AFP
Slovenian cycling is about to win the next big title: Primoz Roglic from the Jumbo-Visma team paved the way for the repetition of his overall victory in the big exchange of blows between the Vuelta favorites.
The Olympic time trial champion pulled his competitor away in the rain on the long final climb of the 17th stage and won the red jersey of the leader from the suspended Norwegian Odd Cristian Eiking, who also fell and dropped to eleventh place in the overall standings.
On the tenth stage, Eiking surprisingly took the lead and wore the red jersey for seven days.
Roglic's starting position for the Vuelta triple after 2019 and 2020 is brilliant, he is 2:22 minutes ahead of Spaniard Enric Mas before the final four stages.
Bernal falls behind, Pogocar fails
Giro winner Egan Bernal from Colombia was also unable to keep up on the way up to the Lagos de Covadonga in Asturias, he broke about seven kilometers from the finish and lost more than a minute and a half.
Roglic's team-mate Sepp Kuss (USA) finished second of the day.
Before that, the 185.8 km long stage was twice over the Collada Llomena, which was part of the Vuelta program for the first time.
The 18th section of the Tour of Spain takes the field of drivers from Salas over 162.6 kilometers to Altu d'El Gamoniteiru on Thursday.
The Vuelta ends on Sunday with the 33-kilometer time trial to Santiago de Compostela - Roglic won the gold medal in this discipline in Tokyo.
Tour de France winner Tadej Pogacar (Slovenia) skipped the Vuelta to build up his form for the World Cup in Flanders (September 18-26).
krä / sid
