The Belgian team has dominated the general classification on the final Grand Tour of the year, and that continued on the 124.5 kilometres mountainous stage beginning in Ribadesella which had been viewed as a potentially decisive day.

The day finished on the famous Alto de L'Angliru climb of 12.4km at an average of 9.8 per cent gradient, including sections above 20 per cent.

Lone Belgian leader and last year's Vuelta winner Remco Evenepoel of Deceuninck-Quick-Step was caught with around 6km remaining, with Team Bahrain Victorious' Dutch rider Wout Poels heading a group of six riders climbing the ascent.

Of those six, Roglič made the first move with only Dane Vingegaard and American Kuss able to follow him.

Roglič and Vingegaard dropped their team-mate and general classification leader Kuss inside the final 2km, damaging his red jersey hopes in the process.

However, it was three-time Vuelta winner Roglič who pipped back-to-back Tour de France champion Vingegaard across the finish line in 3hours 15min 56sec to claim a 12^th stage victory on the race.

The arrival of Spanish rider Mikel Landa of Bahrain Victorious helped Kuss limit the damage, and he rounded off a Jumbo-Visma one-two-three at 19sec off the pace.

Kuss' lead is down to 8sec ahead of Vingegaard, with Roglič in third moving 1min 8sec off the pace.

The three riders strengthened their grip on the general classification podium, with Spain's Juan Ayuso of UAE Team Emirates in fourth dropping to 4:00 behind Kuss after placing ninth at 1:42 behind Roglič.

Roglič admitted "it feels strange to leave a team-mate behind", but insisted "we are riders, and we always try to do our best".

Tomorrow is set to mark the final mountain stage among the four remaining days of racing with the 179km route from Pola de Allande to La Cruz de Linares featuring five categorised climbs including a summit finish.