Primoz Roglic won a gruelling mountain stage 17 of La Vuelta a Espana ahead of Jumbo-Visma team-mate Jonas Vingegaard as American Sepp Kuss retained the overall leader’s jersey.

The 124.5 kilometres course started at Ribadesella and featured two category one ascents before finishing through the clouds on Altu de l’Angliru, with Jumbo-Visma again showing strength to last the distance.

Soudal-QuickStep duo Remco Evenepoel and Mattia Cattaneo were among those who made early attacks along with Marc Soler of UAE Team Emirates.

Evenepoel reached the top of Alto del Cordal as he looked to cement his place in the blue-dotted climber’s jersey, but both he and Soler were eventually reeled in by the peloton on the assent up l’Angliru.

Roglic attacked heading into the final three kilometres, but Vingegaard and Kuss stayed with him as the clouds rolled in.

Kuss, celebrating his 29th birthday, could not keep up as Tour de France champion Vingegaard and Roglic crafted a lead before the Slovenian went on to take the stage win.

A late sprint from the American, though, saw Kuss finish 19 seconds behind in third, ahead of Bahrain Victorious duo Mikel Landa and Wout Poels, which proved enough to retain La Roja.

Kuss now holds an eight-second advantage over Vingegaard, with Roglic a further one minute back as Jumbo-Visma continue to dominate the general classification standings.

Stage 18 will again be another mountain course over 179km from Pola de Allande to La Cruz de Linares.

PA

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