Jonas Vingegaard was the big favorite for the overall victory in the Vuelta a España and today, on the Bola del Mundo, the Dane conquered his third stage victory increasing his advantage over his rivals. Tomorrow Vingegaard will climb the podium in Madrid as the overall winner, with Joao Almeida 1'16" behind in second place, and Tom Pidcock completing the podium 3'11" back.

"I can be happy about waiting to win another stage. It's true I wanted to win in Bilbao and wanted to win on the Angliru, but the Bola del Mundo is also a very special victory."

For the Dane, this is his second Grand Tour in his career: he has already won the Tour de France twice and now he has achieved success in the Vuelta a España, where in addition to the general classification, he has also won 3 stages.

In recent days Vingegaard seemed tired and today he admitted that the third week had not started as he had hoped.

"If I must be honest, only today did I start to feel a bit better. I felt better compared to other days when we had mountain finishes. So I can be very satisfied with how things went for me today and how the team worked in the last three weeks."

In the top ten, Visma Lease a Bike placed three riders: besides Vingegaard, there's Kuss who finished seventh and was second in today's stage, and then Matteo Jorgenson who will close his Vuelta in tenth place.

"The team was incredible and I couldn't have done it without them. They always worked extremely hard and were close to me, solving many situations." Vingegaard attacked at the end of the last climb and Joao Almeida, his rival, couldn't stay on his wheel. The Dane immediately went up with a different pace and in a few seconds created a gap behind him. Kuss crossed the finish line in second place 11" back, followed by Hindley, Pidcock, and Almeida, the latter 22" behind.

"Actually, I wouldn't say I was comfortable with the pace set by Joao Almeida and Jai Hindley, but at least I felt I wasn't yet at my limit, so I thought I had a chance, a good chance of winning this stage: so at a certain point I decided and went. I immediately took a small advantage and then the last hundred meters were incredibly hard and I almost crashed into the barriers, so I made a small mistake."

Vingegaard now has more stage wins in the Vuelta than in the Tour de France, and with the victory in the Spanish race, the Dane sent an important signal. "I can't say I've won the Vuelta yet because there's still tomorrow's stage, but I don't think anything will change. So let's hope everything stays like this and I arrive at the finish line still wearing the red jersey."