Lights

Comments

Wout van Aert celebrates as he wins stage 7 of the 2024 Vuelta a España.

Vuelta stage 7 report: Van Aert is in control

Almost every day's a GC day as a reduced bunch comes to the finish amid a flurry of moves.

Joe Lindsey
by Joe Lindsey 23.08.2024 Photography by
Cor Vos
More from Joe +

Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) easily took a reduced bunch sprint on stage 7 of the Vuelta a España to win his second stage of the race and pad his lead in the points standings. Van Aert’s win, on another lumpy transitional day that saw some edgy action from GC riders, establishes him as the “sprinter du Tour” at this year’s final Grand Tour, and came after some significant teamwork on the front from defending Vuelta champion Sepp Kuss.

Despite some aggressive racing in the final – in particular over the Cat 2 “Alto del 14%” climb (yes, its real name) – the GC remains largely unchanged. Red jersey Ben O’Connor (Decathlon-Ag2r la Mondiale) had little trouble responding to the moves and had teammates with him at every crucial moment. Primož Roglič picked up a few bonus seconds on the climb but remains a distant 4:45 behind, in second place.

Loading...

Loading...

How it happened

I don’t know if people realize what it’s like at 60 kilos to do those kinds of pulls on the flat. I had goosebumps and just wanted to finish the job.

-Van Aert, crediting Kuss’ exceptional teamwork in the final 25 km

Brief analysis

Up next

If the day ends in -Y, it’s an uphill finish for the Vuelta, and stage 8 is back to the climbing with a 159 km stage from Úbeda to Cazorla. There are just two categorized ascents on the menu, but the finish climb to Sierra de Cazorla looks tricky: 4.8 km at 7.2% on paper, but with the steepest sustained gradients – near 10% – at the top. If today was a day for GC riders to test out their competition, Saturday will be a day to see exactly how big the cracks are. Look for Red Bull to put O’Connor under pressure, and for UAE to do, well, UAE things.

Did we do a good job with this story?