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.
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How it happened
- Friday’s seventh stage, a 180.5 km ride from Archidona to Cordoba, was not what anyone would call flat, but with the one major climb coming some 25 km from the finish it looked to be a bunch finish, albeit from a reduced group. What we didn’t realize was just how reduced that would be.
- Perhaps with eyes on that, the early breakaway had just one taker: Euskaltel-Euskadi’s Xabier Isasa. For hours the young Spaniard plowed a lonely furrow out front and although his lead was allowed to grow to almost double-digit minutes at one point, he was never a serious threat for the stage win. Behind, Alpecin-Deceuninck minded the front along with Decathlon and Visma, and the pace began to pick up approaching the climb and the group absorbed Isasa.
- On its early slopes, Visma’s Edoardo Affini set the hard early pace, shedding riders off the back. The climb, which features its steepest portions near the top, gradually reduced the group, including more than a few riders normally more than able to keep up on such terrain, like UAE Team Emirates’ Brandon McNulty and Ineos Grenadiers’ Thymen Arensman.
- Toward the summit, a flurry of testing attacks unfolded as Roglič, UAE’s Pavel Sivakov, and Lennart Van Eetvelt (Lotto Dstny) all made moves. Ultimately it was no one’s surprise when Roglič took the top points at the summit and with them a six-second time bonus. Kuss, having no doubt absorbed many lessons from his former teammate, followed alertly behind.
- On the twisting descent, UAE’s Marc Soler took a flyer as Kuss led the chase in the 30-odd rider group behind, ostensibly for teammate Van Aert. The technical roads caught out a few riders, but Soler never gained more than about 20 seconds, and Kuss did several long pulls even down onto the flat to catch him back with 3.5 km to go.
- Another series of testing attacks followed, but even a late flyer by Sivakov was unsuccessful as Van Aert started his sprint a little early and still held on for an easy win over Lidl-Trek’s Mathias Vacek, with Equipo Kern Pharma’s Pau Miquel a surprising third.
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
- Every Grand Tour there’s one (maybe two) sprinters who emerge with superlative form for three weeks. We don’t yet know if there are others, but Van Aert seems to be that guy this Vuelta. Through seven stages, he has five podiums, including his two wins. It’s not a particularly deep sprinter field – to no one’s surprise given the course – but Van Aert in particular is ideally suited to it.
- That said, the team does have other ambitions, and Van Aert noted that, saying that Visma’s philosphy is “everyone sacrifices for the others. To have the defending champion pulling for you is a huge example” of that, and while Kuss is more than a minute adrift of Roglič he doubtless still has designs on a high overall finish, and Van Aert’s time to pay back his teammate will come. It’s a remarkable change from last year’s Vuelta for the team.
- By contrast, it’s UAE whose strategy appears to be akin to a jungle primary. The team entered the Vuelta with a strong squad but no clear leader and while riders like Soler, McNulty, and Adam Yates have drifted more or less out of contention, Sivakov, João Almeida and Isaac del Toro are all theoretically still in the hunt. But today looked like an every-man-for-himself approach as Sivakov tried several moves.
- As we talk about team strength, take a moment to note Decathlon. While O’Connor is moving on to Jayco-AlUla next year, a Grand Tour win (or even podium) would be a huge result for the mid-size French team. And with a nearly five-minute lead for a proved Grand Tour rider like O’Connor, they have the team to do it, with climbers like Clément Berthet, Valentin Paret-Peintre, Victor Lafay and Felix Gall. It’s too early to say if “GC Ben” is going to stick, but so far both he and the team are passing the test easily.
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.
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