Vuelta a España Stage Report: Wout van Aert (Visma | Lease a Bike) received the seventh stage of the Vuelta a España in Cordoba. The Belgian beat Mathias Vacek (Lidl-Trek) and Pau Miquel (Kern Pharma) in a dash from a lowered main group after an exciting finale. Ben O’Connor (Decathlon-AG2R-La Mondiale) held the general lead with out a lot drawback.
Stage 7 finale
Vuelta race director, Fernando Escartín: “This linear stage runs by means of the Province of Córdoba earlier than its conventional finale within the capital. After crossing the finish-line for the primary time, the riders will face a peak with an inclination of 14%, which can serve to whittle down the peloton earlier than heading again down in the direction of the finish-line. This finish-line will profit quick males which can be robust sufficient to beat this problem earlier than taking part in a lowered dash to the finish-line, like Magnus Cort did in 2021.”
Stage 7 profile
Stage 7: The seventh stage is on rolling roads and can most likely not trigger any issues for the GC riders. There’s a Cat.2 climb 30 kilometres from the end. From the stage begins in Archidona, there may be some climbing within the first 140 kilometres, however nothing arduous. The toughest a part of the stage is the Alto del 14%, sure, that’s the title of the climb and its most gradient. The climb is 8.4 kilometres and has a mean gradient of 5.3%. It’s downhill to the end in Cordoba.
One other sizzling day in Spain
In contrast to Thursday, there was no battle to get within the early break on Friday. Xabier Isasa jumped away, however nobody was inquisitive about becoming a member of him. The Spaniard of Euskaltel-Euskadi was on a lonely solo journey to Córdoba. The peloton didn’t attempt to chase down Isasa and so the 22-year-old rider had a most lead of 8 minutes.
Extra factors immediately for Wout van Aert’s inexperienced jersey
The lads of Visma | Lease a Bike and Alpecin-Deceuninck rode on the entrance of the peloton and slowly pulled Isasa again. The dash for the remaining factors on the intermediate dash between Wout van Aert and Kaden Groves was no huge battle as Van Aert may need been saving one thing for later and Groves took the factors comparatively simply.
The race leaders at first
After the intermediate dash, the Alto del 14% was subsequent on the menu. There was some nervousness within the peloton and lots of GC groups needed to have their chief close to the entrance for the one categorised climb of the day. Isasa was caught at first of the climb.
Can Ben O’Connor take the pink jersey all the way in which to Madrid?
Crimson Bull-BORA-hansgrohe needed to make the race arduous on the climb. The pace was excessive at first, after which the whole crew was used up with 2 kilometres to go to the highest. Primoz Roglič took the lead, however was changed by Aleksandr Vlasov. The excessive tempo had already claimed many victims. Not solely the sprinters, but additionally some GC rider; Thymen Arensman and Cian Uijtdebroeks had been dropped.
The peloton took the outdated route out of city
A kilometre from the highest, there was an acceleration. It was Roglič once more, however he didn’t keep it up the transfer. Quite a lot of assaults got here on the climb, however nobody managed to take a niche. Roglič then sprinted for the summit bonus seconds on the Alto del 14%, forward of Sepp Kuss and Richard Carapaz. They had been with a gaggle of about 30 riders, together with the inexperienced jersey, Wout van Aert.
The climbs immediately are usually not too arduous, however for the sprinters…
Groves didn’t handle to outlive the climb. He was too far again on the high, however because of a second of inattention the Australian crashed and misplaced his final likelihood of a attainable stage win. Van Aert solely had Sepp Kuss with him to regulate issues within the lead group, which made it a troublesome for the inexperienced jersey holder.
Xabier Isasa (Euskaltel-Euskadi) determined to go solo
Soler was the primary to assault. After the highest of the Alto del 14% he took his second and shortly had a lead of 20 seconds. Kuss was helped within the chase by Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale and they also may maintain Soler inside vary.
The peloton weren’t too nervous
Van Aert determined to not wait. With 11 kilometres to go he attacked from the group, however that didn’t work and Soler’s lead was now solely 10 seconds. After that, it was all the way down to Kuss to do the chase work. The American progressively obtained nearer and nearer to Soler, who was beginning to battle.
Isasa solely had a minute lead as he handed by means of the end with 40K to go, however the peloton had been at ‘full gasoline’ and shortly caught him
With 3 kilometres to go, Soler was caught by the a lot thinned out lead group. That was the sign for extra assaults. David Gaudu made an try, however a transfer by Pavel Sivakov was higher. The Frenchman had just a few seconds as he began the final kilometre. It was Vlasov who closed the hole this time.
The peloton had been glad of the bathe to assist quiet down…
… and the firemen had been completely satisfied to assist
Two Australians – Crimson jersey Ben O’Connor and inexperienced jersey hopeful, Kaden Groves having a phrase
Van Aert opened his dash early and nobody may get near the Belgian. He beat Mathias Vacek and Pau Miquel by a large margin. Van Aert took his second victory within the 2024 Vuelta a España and added extra factors to his inexperienced jersey lead.
The inexperienced jersey went for an extended dash
Wout Van Aert made it look simple
Stage winner and factors chief, Wout van Aert (Visma | Lease a Bike): “I anticipated a a lot larger group to go to the end line. I knew the ultimate climb on the circuit was arduous however I didn’t count on that the race would explode like this. On the highest, I discovered myself with Sepp [Kuss] alone within the entrance group. It was actually troublesome to handle however Sepp did an incredible job. I don’t know if folks realise what it’s like for those who’re under 60 kilos and also you do this type of pull on the flat. I had goosebumps on his wheel and I simply needed to complete it off. It is a actually huge one. I believed possibly they’d let me go if I stunned them [with 12km to go] however I noticed UAE chasing behind me and I didn’t wish to take the danger to take the entrance and nonetheless get caught by the others. Afterward, I may rely on Sepp. In our crew, it’s not solely about successful however performing as a crew, making difficult plans and part of that’s that everyone dares to sacrifice himself for the others. The defending champion of this race pulling for you, that’s an enormous instance of our crew’s philosophy. I’m so proud due to that.”
It was a win by a motorcycle size Van Aert
Total chief, Ben O’Connor (Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale): “It was good! It was a brilliant simple day till the ultimate, to be honest. Then, it was explosive, however I felt significantly better within the warmth than I did earlier within the week… It was a pleasant day! I wasn’t stunned [Primoz Roglič] went for the bonus nevertheless it wasn’t like a loopy explosive assault. I’m fairly snug with how I felt immediately and fairly pleased with the way it turned out. I can’t actually do a lot towards Primoz’s dash for the bonuses however he must take plenty of bonuses to make up that point. We’ll see within the huge mountains.”
A giant because of Sepp Kuss from Van Aert
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Vuelta a España Stage 7 End result:
1. Wout Van Aert (Bel) Visma | Lease a Bike in 4:15:39
2. Mathias Vacek (CZ) Lidl-Trek
3. Pau Miquel Delgado (Spa) Equipo Kern Pharma
4. Stefan Küng (Sui) Groupama-FDJ
5. Quinten Hermans (Bel) Alpecin-Deceuninck
6. Quentin Pacher (Fra) Groupama-FDJ
7. Lorenzo Rota (Ita) Intermarché-Wanty
8. Harold Alfonso Tejada (Col) Canacue Astana Qazaqstan
9. Max Poole (GB) dsm-firmenich-PostNL
10. George Bennett (NZ) Israel-Premier Tech.
Vuelta a España Total After Stage 7:
1. Ben O’Connor (Aus) Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale in 27:44:07
2. Primož Roglič (Slo) Crimson Bull-BORA-hansgrohe at 4:45
3. João Almeida (Por) UAE Workforce Emirates at 4:59
4. Enric Mas Nicolau (Spa) Movistar at 5:23
5. Cristian Rodriguez Martin (Spa) Arkéa-B&B Motels at 5:26
6. Antonio Tiberi (Ita) Bahrain Victorious at 5:29
7. Lennert Van Eetvelt (Bel) Lotto Dstny at 5:32
8. Florian Lipowitz (Ger) Crimson Bull-BORA-hansgrohe at 5:35
9. Felix Gall (Aust) Decathlon-AG2R-La Mondiale at 5:38
10. Mattias Skjelmose Jensen (Den) Lidl-Trek at 5:49.
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