Key Takeaways: Vuelta a España Stage 7

Breaking down how a surprisingly tough finale was expertly managed to deliver an impressive stage win & what it told us about the ever-evolving GC picture

Wout van Aert deftly won his second stage of this Vuelta a España in the Andalusian city of Cordoba after he and his Visma-Lease a Bike teammate Sepp Kuss withstood a flurry of dangerous attacks from the elite and disorganized group, forcing a reduced sprint, which Van Aert handled with ease. While the day’s mild course, outside of a late second category climb just over 20 kilometers to go, set low expectations for any GC action, it didn’t stop Primož Roglič’s Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe team from setting a brutal pace on the climb to test the tired legs of Ben O’Connor.

The new race leader may have looked unbothered as he marked every move, but the hot pace from Roglič’s team distanced plenty of riders, including a good portion of their own squad, and allowed the three-time overall winner to take a six-second time bonus at the summit. It may have been a modest haul, but O’Connor’s solid performance on the stage made it clear that if Roglič and Red Bull want to win this Vuelta, they can’t afford to let any chance to decrease the gap pass them by.

Stage Top Five:
1) Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike +0
2) Mathias Vacek (Lidl-Trek) +0
3) Pau Miquel (Equipo Kern Pharma) +0
4) Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ) +0
5) Quinten Hermans (Alpecin-Deceuninck) +0

Green Jersey Standings:
1) Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike)-203pts
2) Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck)-162ts
3) Pavel Bittner (dsm-firmenich PostNL)-81pts

Current GC Top Five
1) Ben O'Connor (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) +0
2) Primož Roglič (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) +4’45
3) João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) +4’59
4) Enric Mas (Movistar) +5’23
5) Cristián Rodríguez (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) +5’26

Stage 7 Race Notebook

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29.3km-to-go: With the peloton expecting Visma to press the pace to shake Kaden Groves loose on the day’s only categorized climb, Red Bull-Bora’s team catches the peloton by surprise by coming to the front to set a tough pace, presumably in an attempt to test race leader Ben O’Connor after the massive energy expenditure the day prior.

27.7km: Red Bull-Bora appears to miscalculate their pace when just two kilometers later, their domestiques, like Dani Martínez and Florian Lipowitz, are dropped, leaving Roglič isolated and without teammates at the front of the peloton with Sepp Kuss. Race leader O’Connor looks incredibly comfortable on his wheel. Further back, the peloton is blown to bits as fringe GC contenders and sprinters are dropped.

26.8km: Roglič, finding himself isolated at the front for the second time at this Vuelta, keeps the pace steady but high enough to deter attacks as his teammate Aleksandr Vlasov fights his way up to the front to offer help. While the group is incredibly diminished, Wout van Aert is still present near the front.

26.2km: As the lead group hits a brief plateau near the top of the climb, the pace stalls, and Lennert van Eetvelt attacks in an attempt to get clear to scoop up the six-second time bonus at the top. Behind, Vlasov immediately comes to the front to pace Roglič back to his wheel.

25.6km: Vlasov’s heads-up riding pays dividends when Roglič comes over the summit of the climb to take the six-second time bonus and begin the massive task of unraveling O’Connor’s massive overall lead. The race leader, likely knowing that he is better off saving his energy for the coming stages, doesn’t contest the sprint.

21.1km: After Kaden Groves crashes behind, it is clear that Wout van Aert will easily win a sprint if the group comes to the line together. So, with only a single teammate in Sepp Kuss and in a group of strong non-sprinters, the difficulty of Van Aert’s task comes into focus when Marc Soler launches an attack as Sepp Kuss tries to hold things together by pacing on the front.

17.7km: With Soler 12 seconds off the front, Kuss and Van Aert catch a break when O’Connor’s Decathlon team begins pacing on the front of the peloton to deter attacks from GC rivals.

10.6km: As Soler’s gap grows, Van Aert attacks solo in an attempt to either bridge up to Soler or cause the pace to increase as the UAE-led peloton chases him enough to seriously dent Soler’s advantage.

9.5km: When Van Aert is eventually reeled in by UAE (who knows that if Van Aert catches Soler, he will undoubtedly win the stage), Kuss smartly counter-attacks.

9.2km: O’Connor, showing that he won’t easily be caught out, follows Kuss, while Van Aert sits in the group and marks the UAE-led chase of his teammate. This sets up a situation where UAE either has to pull Van Aert back to the front, since if they refuse, they would be giving his teammate free time in the GC.

4.3km: After Kuss is eventually reeled in, he sets an impressive pace on the front that lines out the peloton behind and slowly reels in Soler.

1.9km: After Kuss’ pace neutralizes Soler, UAE’s Pavel Sivakov attempts to take advantage of the stalling pace by attacking.

500m: With Sivakov still sitting high in the GC, Red Bull’s Vlasov (who is placed directly ahead of Sivakov in the overall) uncorks a strong pull to reel him in and, presumably, set up Roglič to contest the bonus seconds (and leading out Wout van Aert in the process).

250m: As Vlasov pulls in Sivakov, Van Aert is looking over his shoulder to ensure he isn’t swamped by riders coming behind. When he sees Mathias Vacek launch, he immediately reacts and wastes no time opening up his sprint.

200m: Once Van Aert is in full flight, he is simply a class above the rest of the field, who aren’t true bunch sprinters.

Finish: This power discrepancy allows Van Aert to easily hold off Vacek and Pau Miquel to get his second stage win of the race and pad his Green Jersey lead.