MADRID, Sept. 6 (Xinhua) -- The Vuelta de Espana (Tour of Spain) leader Primoz Roglic of Jumbo-Visma took a huge step towards assuring the overall title when he finished second behind 20-year-old Tadej Pogacar of UAE Team Emirates in Friday's testing 13th stage.
Roglic began the day with a 1:52 lead over the second-placed Alejandro Valverde in the general rankings, and finished the stage a further 27 seconds ahead of his closest rival, which, together with a six-second time bonus, extended his lead to 2:25 over Valverde.
Meanwhile, Pogacar once again confirmed himself enormous promising and moved into the third place in the overall standings after Miguel Angel Lopez of Astana struggled over the last kilometers and dropped to the fourth overall.
The day began in Athletic Club Bilbao's San Mames Stadium and ended on the brutal climb up Los Machucos 161 kilometers down the road.
The early stage of the race saw a break of 29 riders open a lead of over eight minutes over the main group, but after six climbs in a demanding day that lead had been cut to just over a minute from the group of favorites containing Roglic, Valverde, Lopez, Pogacar and Nairo Quintana.
It was clear the day would be decided on a climb which contained sections of gradient of 25 percent where the riders were reduced to almost walking pace.
Pierre Latour of AG2R La Mondiale led the race over sections of road, which were mere slabs of concrete, while Roglic showed his strength and along with Pogacar began to open a gap over Quintana, Valverde and Lopez, who were struggling on the steep ramps.
Roglic and Pogacar caught Latour with 1,500 meters left and rode together to the finish where Roglic didn't contest the sprint with his young Slovenian compatriot - he was already the day's big winner.
Saturday sees a rolling 188km ride between San Vicente de la Barquera to Oviedo and could produce a sprint finish.
