Although the mountain goats are already at the top of the rankings and GC favourite and red jersey Lecuisinier has already won a stage, today is the first real mountain stage. Not the hardest stage, but the finish on la Alpujarra should prove hard enough to drop the likes of Yates (3rd GC) and Skujins (5th). Yesterday, a strong Tarvis won it from the breakaway, will the breakaway be victorious again today? We’ll find out soon, as the riders are about to start the seventh stage of la Vuelta 2020!
Bouchard is the first to attack! We can’t say it’s a surprise that Toupalik is there again, but it’s still impressive to see him competing up front once again! The other two riders who are in this group are Castrillo and Daniel.
A bit later, seven more riders join the leading group after Quita decided to attack as well. The other six riders who joined him are Ballerini, Arslanov, Arifin, Harper, Gillett and Rosch. Their lead over the peloton is quickly growing, this should be the breakaway of the day.
KoM-leader Toupalik is also in the top-10 in the points classification. He wins the first intermediate sprint of the day without too many resistance by the others and jumps to the seventh place in that ranking. 122 km to the finish line and the peloton following at 7’. The work there being done by the PCT teams Desigual and Duolingo as well as the team of the red jersey, Festina - OAKA
With exactly 100 km to go the riders reach the top of the Puerto de los Blancares. A long mountain, but not steep at all. Harper seemed to be winning the six points, but with a late jump it’s Toupalik who extends his lead in the KoM-rankings! Thanks to this, he might hold on to his jersey one more day, once again. Peloton coming closer now, they’re at 5’30”.
70 km left as the leaders reach the second and last intermediate sprint of the day. Toupalik is the only one trying to score points and does so easily. Another ten points bring him to a provisional fourth place in that ranking. The peloton, where Rakuten started helping is now at less than 5’.
25 km to go and mainly Desigual working in the peloton now. The break is still 2’30” ahead, but in 5 km they will start our final climb of the day. Nobody has been dropped yet, while GC favourites Lecuisinier and Tenorio are positioned well.
And they’re off! The eleven leaders start their 20 km ascent of la Alpujarra! An average gradient of 5% is doable of course, but 20 km is 20 km. The peloton passes here 2’30” later.
Desigual got some plans! They got five riders at the front of the peloton and also Fraile still ahead of Tenorio. Also up front are Bongiorno with Lecuisinier and Mamykin with Kritskiy!
In the leading group, Rosch attacks with 18 km to the finish line! Arifin tries to follow him but is not strong enough!
Desigual seems to have changed their tactics! They stop chasing, leaving Brozyna at the front for Rakuten, but the Pole not chasing very hard. Rosch has a 20” lead over Arifin, an additional 40” over the other 9 from the original breakaway and then in total a bit more than 4’ over the peloton with 15 km to go! Only one rider has been dropped so far: Duolingo’s Merlier.
The German extending his lead on the easiest and flattest parts of the mountain! Arifin now 45” behind and the other nine an additional 45” with 10 km to go! The peloton just not caring at all anymore and at 6’20”! What does this mean? Well, Toupalik is coming closer to saving his KoM-jersey again, and is even riding in the virtual red jersey, imagine!
Has Rosch overestimated himself? In the last 2 km, his lead to the nine others has dropped from 1’30” to 1’10”! The peloton, which is led by Tinkoff and UBS, is 6’ behind the group of 9! 8 km to the finish line!
7 km to go as Arifin gets caught by Harper and the others. Rosch remains 1’10” ahead, but the peloton is still at 6’20” from the chasing group. Four men of Desigual are now coming to the front again there, another one-second show, or will they actually do something this time? Still, only five riders have been dropped today.
It’s looking very good again for Rosch! He extended his lead over the ten chasers up to 1’35” while entering the last 5 km, while at the same time the peloton is still very, very, very , very , very calm and not coming closer.
While Rosch has 3.5 km to go, Ballerini is the first to be dropped in the group behind. They are trailing the German by almost 2’ now.
Finally some action in the peloton! Hirt is as bored as the spectators and attacks at 6.5 km to the finish line! Let’s see what havoc this attack creates!
We’re back to nothing, as Brozyna fulfills his domestique duties and doesn’t let go of the Czech. Only ten riders have been dropped because of this attack.
Rosch is looking at a certain win here. Still 2’ ahead with only 2 km to climb! He’s now being chased by eight riders, as Arifin has been dropped as well. The peloton has gone back to their extremely slow pace, which means Toupalik still has that virtual red jersey!
But luckily, Hirt wakes up everybody again with another attack! He actually has a gap this time, the first to react are Kritskiy, Gesink and Reis!
At the same time, the climb is 1 km too long for Toupalik! His red dream seems to be scattered, meaning Bouchard is next in line to maybe take that jersey!
It will all depend on the pace behind though. Hirt couldn’t get away due to the work of Gesink, who’s being followed by red jersey Lecuisinier. 3.3 km to go for them, with still all important names in a big peloton.
Meanwhile it’s easy peasy lemon squeezy for Rosch, who was simply the strongest climber in the breakaway today. He wins the seventh stage of this year’s Vuelta!
2.5 km to the finish line for the GC favourites and it’s now Gesink with the attack! Formolo is the first to follow him. The GC favourites are all within the first 25-ish riders, but Yates (3rd GC) and Skujins (5th) are at the back of the peloton and could very well be losing their places today.
Around 1’30” behind stage winner Rosch, the podium is completed by Quita and Harper. Gillett finishes fourth, while Bouchard comes in fifth and has a small chance of capturing red.
1.5 km to go for Gesink now! He has a small gap over Formolo and the others, but this shouldn’t mean anything.
2’45” behind Rosch, Castrillo holds off Daniel for the sixth place.
Gesink still has that small gap under the flamme rouge! The big three are just behind him.
Toupalik finishes eighth and score some more points for the green jersey. The top-10 of today’s stage is then completed by Arslanov and Arifin.
Ballerini is caught by Gesink now and the others with 500 metres to go. There is a small gap behind eight of the GC riders though, this could be leading to some time gaps at the finish line!
Gesink finishes strong and wins the sprint for the 11th place against Lecuisinier. This group actually gets awarded 20” over the other GC riders. The riders who arrived in the same time as the red jersey are Kritskiy, Tenorio, Hirt, Haig, Reis, Formolo and Smith.
Speaking about that red jersey, it’s still Lecuisinier’s! Bouchard came incredibly close, but is 6” behind the Frenchman in the GC. Toupalik remains in the KoM-jersey and now leads the U25 again as well, with other breakaway rider Quita second at only 11”. Green jersey Grosu likes stages like this, because only few points go to the GC riders, which means he is still comfortably in the lead in that classification.
