Alberto Dainese of Team DSM-Firmenich narrowly avoided a massive crash in the final kilometre to sprint to victory in stage 19 of the Vuelta a Espana on Friday while American Sepp Kuss of Jumbo-Visma finished safely in the peloton to retain the overall lead.
As the Vuelta enters its home stretch, riders left the mountains behind in a flat 177.5km ride from La Baneza to Iscar, speeding through countryside at 80kph at one point. A breakaway group of four were caught with 20km to go before the teams set themselves up for the sprint with Ineos Grenadiers, Movistar and Bahrain Victorious driving the bunch.
Once the riders rode through a final right-hand bend, they had a straight 2.2km run to the finish line where Kaden Groves, who has won two stages, was involved in a crash where several riders fell after a touch of wheels. Filippo Ganna was in the ideal position at the front and opened up the final sprint but Dainese timed his sprint to perfection to edge out his fellow Italian by milliseconds.
Kuss, two stages away from winning his first Grand Tour, was all smiles as he retained the red jersey. He leads fellow Jumbo-Visma riders Dane Jonas Vingegaard (17 seconds) and Slovenian Primoz Roglic (68 seconds). “These stages are more stressful now because normally I sit at the back and go to the finish line, but now there’s a bit more to lose,” Kuss said .