Primoz Roglic (Jumbo Visma) strengthened his grip on the overall lead after the summit finish of Santuario del Acebo on stage 15 as the Vuelta a España entered its third and final week.

Logrich, who posed no threat to rivals Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) or Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) on the final climb, let mountain domestique Sepp Kuss take the stage win and handle his own GC rivals.

For Jumbo Visma, the team's strength in the mountains was its most impressive to date. The Dutch team maintained a steady pace on the three Category 1 climbs, forming a breakaway group.

Then, on the final ascent of Acebo, Valverde's attack shattered the rest of the group, but Roglic's red jersey overshadowed Movistar's riders on the climb.

The two then worked together to pull away from their rivals, finishing eighth and ninth, respectively.

After Ecebo, Valverde was the only rival of Roglic by 2:25. Slovenia's Pogacar is still in third place, but has dropped to 3:42 back. Given Valverde's relative time difference, he is almost even, if not game, set, and match with Roglic in the GC battle.

Roglic revealed to reporters that he was pleased with his teammate Kus's victory. The traditionally taciturn Slovenian gave an analysis in less than 100 words at the main press conference of the day in which his chances of winning the Vuelta had taken another leap forward.

When asked if Valverde was the most dangerous opponent, Roglic replied, "Certainly he is the closest opponent.

He perceives Valverde as a threat. As I said before, he's second overall. I've said it before, he's second overall. If he attacks, I'll go with him. It was a hard climb the whole way."

And Roglic brushed off when asked if it was normal for the top two GC riders to work together, as they did with Valverde on the final climb.

"We are cyclists and we want to race," he said. We respect each other. We tried to go as fast as we could to the summit."

"We were just trying to get to the top of the mountain as fast as we could.

The Vuelta a España still presents a big test for Roglic, with three important mountain stages, the first of which takes place on a Monday when there is a threat of bad weather. And two more stages await at the end of the third week in the Sierra mountains west of the capital.

But on a day when Jumbo Visma dominated one of the Vuelta's most difficult mountain stages from start to finish, Roglic seems to have a better shot at his first Grand Tour victory.