(Reuters) -Portugal’s Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates XRG) held off Danish race leader Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) at the top of the brutal summit finish of Angliru to win stage 13 of the Vuelta a Espana on Friday.

The top two in the general classification battled it out for the stage win, leaving the rest behind in the final five km. Almeida did all the work on the climb and stayed ahead of Vingegaard in the sprint to the line.

“This is a special one, I still don’t believe it,” Almeida said.

“I just put my pace from the bottom and I just did my bit the best I could. Jonas was always on my wheel, we were both on the limit and I was waiting for his attack anytime.”

Thanks to the bonus seconds for the stage win, Almeida closed the gap to the red jersey to 46 seconds, with Brita

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