MADRID, Aug. 31 (Xinhua) -- Sepp Kuss (Jumbo Visma) won a fascinating and tough sixth stage of the Vuelta a Espana on Thursday, while 20-year-old Lenny Martinez (Groupama-FDJ) took the overall leader's red jersey on a good day for the Jumbo Visma team.
Kuss and Martinez, the youngest rider in the race, were part of a breakaway of over 30 riders that opened a lead of almost seven minutes over the main group, which contained overnight leader Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick step) and the Jumbo pair of Primoz Roglic and Jonas Vingegaard.
The breakaway included some riders with options in the general classification, such as Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates), Kuss and Dylan Van Baarle from Jumbo Visma, Mikel Landa (Bahrain Victorious) and Hugh Carthy (EF Education Easypost).
With important riders in the break, Movistar and Ineos Grenadiers were obliged to lead the chase over the tough rolling terrain which led to the foot of the Pico del Buitre climb to the finish line.
The chase meant the stage was raced flat out and split the race all over the road, but in the final kilometers of the climb, Kuss, who usually helps Roglic and Vingegaard in the mountains, showed his climbing skills to finish 26 seconds ahead of Martinez.
Further down the road, Roglic and Vingegaard attacked Evenepoel, who looked as if he was cracking with around three kilometers left on the stage.
The Belgian began to recover in the closing kilometers and limited his loss to just 32 seconds over the Jumbo Visma pair and just eight over Enric Mas, who had started the stage in second place, just 11 seconds off the lead.
Martinez has an eight-second lead over Kuss, who is now second overall, while Evenepoel has dropped to ninth place, 2 minutes and 47 seconds behind, Vingegaard and Roglic are 2.52 and 2.58 respectively behind the leader.
Friday sees a long, flat stage which should not produce any changes in the overall standings. ■
