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Cycling Weekly

Sport

Patrick Fletcher

Wout van Aert strikes again in reduced bunch sprint on stage 7 of Vuelta a España

Van Aert Primož Roglič Sepp Kuss Wout Van Aert Marc Soler Vuelta a España Vuelta (Event) Florian Lipowitz Pavel Sivakov Red Bull

Team Visma's Wout van Aert celebrates winning the stage 7 of La Vuelta a Espana cycling tour, a 180.5 km race between Archidona and Cordoba, on August 23, 2024. (Photo by CRISTINA QUICLER / AFP).

Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) claimed his second victory of the 2024 Vuelta a España on stage 7, triumphing from a mini bunch that had been heavily reduced on the late climb of the Alto del 14%.

As Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) launched a volley of attacks on the category-2 climb, collecting bonus seconds on at the top, the lead group was cut to 30 riders, and a crucial absentee was Van Aert’s chief sprinting adversary, Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuinck), who was already dropped but ended up crashing across the crest of the climb in a bizarre touch of wheels.

An open plateau, descent, and 10km run-in was well neutralised by none other than Sepp Kuss, the defending Vuelta champion turning domestique to keep the attacks under wraps - notably from UAE Team Emirates’ Marc Soler - and ensure Van Aert could sprint it out from that reduced group.

That Van Aert did, though he did also have to thank Red Bull’s Alexandr Vlasov, who shut down a last-gasp attack from UAE’s Pavel Sivakov to tee up the sprint. When Van Aert opened up, he surged out in front and clinched a convincing victory ahead of Mathias Vacek (Lidl-Trek) and Pau Miquel (Kern Pharma).

"I didn't expect the race would explode like it did," said Van Aert, who used most of his winner's interview to pay tribute to Kuss, who went deep despite having his own GC ambitions to think about.

"Sepp did such an amazing job. I don't know if people realise what it's like if you're below 60kg to do those kind of pulls on the flat. I had goosebumps in the wheel and I just wanted to finish it off.

"In our team it's not only about winning but performing as a team, and a part of that is everyone has to sacrifice themselves for the others," Van Aert continued. "The defending champion of this race pulling for you is a huge example of our team philosophy, so for that I am so proud."

Kuss drags back Soler on the run-in (Image credit: Getty Images)

Stage 7 was quiet for the most part, featuring a one-man breakaway, but the finishing circuit around Córdoba saw the late climb of the Alto del 14% (7.4km at 5.6%), where Red Bull ripped up the script. Roglič, perhaps smarting from losing the red jersey by such a big margin the previous afternoon, launched repeated accelerations, and cut the group to size before collecting six bonus seconds at the summit to start reducing his deficit to Ben O'Connor (Decathlon-AG2R), who was present and correct on his first day in red.

Kuss gained four seconds in bonuses and Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) the final two, but there were bigger movements on GC further down the climb. Red Bull's offensive partly backfired as Florian Lipowitz, fourth overall, was dropped and finished 17 seconds down. Thymen Arensman (Ineos Grenadiers) lost a further minute while the shine was taken off Visma's day as Cian Uijtdebroeks bombed and lost eight minutes.

O'Connor takes the red jersey into the weekend with a lead of 4:45 over Roglič. "I was happy with how I felt and how things played out," said the race leader.

HOW IT HAPPENED

The 180.2km stage from Archidona to Córdoba was enlivened by one man: Xabier Isasa (Euskaltel-Euskadi). The Spaniard was the only rider willing to go in the breakaway, and settled down for a lonely day in the saddle.

He was given some room for manoeuvre, carving out an advantage of eight minutes after 40km, but he was very controllable from the perspective of Visma and Alpecin-Deceuninck, the two teams who were setting the agenda in the peloton.

The gap steadily reduced on the rolling roads, down to five minutes with 100km to go and less than three minutes with 50km to go. It really crashed, though, when they approached the finish line in Cordóba for the first time with 40km to go.

Isasa rolled through the line, which doubled up as an intermediate sprint, only 30 seconds before Groves nipped out to pip Van Aert to the next-best collection of points for the green jersey classification.

The lone breakaway man (Image credit: Getty Images)

Isasa was then swallowed up as UAE Team Emirates worked on the approach to the Alto del 14%, but it was Red Bull who really lit the race up. Giovanni Aleotti and Dani Martínez both hit the front, and there was a brief turn from Lipowitz that perhaps foreshadowed his own struggles. Roglič accelerated himself to shake things up before Vlasov took a big turn that turned the screw on Arensman and Uijtdebroeks.

Roglič hit it again 1.5km from the summit and soon only 20 riders were there, although hesitation followed, filled by speculative attacks. Roglič went for a third time 500 metres from the top, and took it to the line to collect his six bonus seconds.

There were only 20 riders up front with 25km to go, including Van Aert, with plenty of damage behind. Groves was already a minute down but rode into the rear wheel of Nairo Quintana at the top and literally rolled across the KOM line – any remaining hopes he had going up in smoke.

As a small group made its way back to the front on the rolling plateau, UAE went on the offensive, first attacking through Sivakov and then through Soler, who opened a lead of 20 seconds. With no other teammates in that group, Kuss got to work early for Van Aert, keeping Kuss in sight as the road tilted downhill and then onto the flat in the final 10km.

Roglič goes on the attack (Image credit: Getty Images)

Van Aert tried to launch a surprise with an attack of his own but it was snuffed out by UAE and Kuss settled back into his improvised lead-out role, slowly but surely dragging Soler back with 3.5km to go.

A lull threatened to allow the Lipowitz group to come back but David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) kicked it off again, and Sivakov then threw the cat among the pigeons with a move just ahead of the final kilometre. With Kuss used up, it might have spelled trouble for Van Aert, but Vlasov, presumably thinking Roglič might be able to sprint for the win, set about shutting it down.

He only did so with around 250 metres to go, which turned out to be the perfect launchpad for Van Aert to claim what he described as "a big one" in his career.