'He's a superstar' – Wout van Aert wins two-up sprint to claim stage 13 of Vuelta a España

Wout van Aert beat Valentin Paret-Peintre in a two-up sprint to win stage 13 of the Vuelta a España on Friday afternoon.

The pair were part of a mega breakaway that formed in the first part of the 192km stage and swelled to 43 riders at one point – more than a quarter of the entire peloton.

With 3.7km to go, Van Aert charged out of a nine-rider group that had whittled down at the front of the race. Soudal Quick-Step's Paret-Peintre chased the Visma-Lease a Bike rider, swapping through turns, but could not match his speed down the finishing straight in Loja.

"I had it a little bit in my mind [to attack when I did]," Van Aert said in his post-stage TV interview. "I saw the profile and I knew there was this last kicker coming into the village.

"This distance [ed. 3.7km out], a lot of the time, is when people start to think about the sprint. If you’re able to open up a gap, then they don’t want to close it for each other any more. It was close enough to the finish to be worth it.

"With Valentin, I had a nice companion – he gave me a few turns – and it was nice to battle to the line together."

The victory marked Visma-Lease a Bike's fourth at the race, the first three courtesy of Matthew Brennan, who closed down attacks by Léo Bisiaux (Decathlon CMA CGM) and Simon Dalby (Uno-X Mobility) in the finale to help set up his team-mate.

"He's a superstar," Brennan said of Van Aert after the stage. "I’m really happy that I could do my bit to get him the victory that he deserves in this race."

The victory came two years and a day after the Belgian abandoned his debut Vuelta following a crash on a descent that left him with a season-ending knee injury.

Enric Mas (Movistar) continues to lead the general classification by one minute and 45 seconds over Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe).

More to follow.