Tony Gallopin claims Stage 7 as Kwiatkowski crashes – La Vuelta
2018 Vuelta a Espana
Stage 7
Veteran rouleur Gallopin (Ag2R-La Mondiale) made light work of a headwind to surge clear of a hesitant main pack, passing Spaniard Jesus Herrada (Cofidis) with two kilometres remaining before holding on for a maiden stage win in the Vuelta at Pozo Alcon.
The Slovakian world champion Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) pipped local rider Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) in the uphill sprint for scraps five seconds back, with Spaniards Eduard Prades (Euskadi-Murias) and Omar Fraile (Astana) completing the top five in a thrilling finale.
Just 28 riders came to the line in a chasing pack behind Gallopin after a series of spills, mechanicals and race incidents split the peloton into numerous groups during a lumpy closing 20km over narrow, sinuous and coarse roads in the arid Murcian hills.
Frenchman Rudy Molard (Groupama-FDJ) came home safely in that elite group to retain the red leader’s jersey but his nearest rival is now the Spanish veteran Valverde after Team Sky’s Kwiatkowski hit the deck while leading the chase through a left-hand bend on a fast descent with 8km remaining.
Sporting the green points classification jersey, Kwiatkowski battled hard to rejoin his GC rivals but came home in a small group of riders 30 seconds in arrears. The Pole dropped from second place to sixth on GC, and now trails Molard by 1’06”.
Colombian Nairo Quintana (Movistar) also appeared to leave the road with 11km remaining – but the 2016 Vuelta champion fought back to finish in the main elite group alongside the likes of Wilco Kelderman (Team Sunweb), Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana), Fabio Aru (UAE Team Emirates), Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott), Emanuel Buchmann (Bora-Hansgrohe), Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) and a sprightly George Bennett (LottoNL-Jumbo).
Earlier, on the second of two Cat.3 climbs with 15km remaining, a small pile-up in the pack set the tone for a tumultuous twenty minutes of racing just as the day’s seven escapees were being reabsorbed into the peloton.
Breaking clear shortly after the start of the 185.7km stage, those seven riders were Alexis Gougeard (AG2R-La Mondiale), Michael Woods (Education First-Drapac), Floris De Tier (LottoNL-Jumbo), Nicola Conci (Trek-Segafredo), Edward Ravasi (UAE Team Emirates), Alex Aranburu (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) and Oscar Rodriguez (Euskadi-Murias).
Despite an early crash and two bike changes, the Canadian Woods managed to fight back into the break as the escapees built up a maximum lead of three and a half minutes in the sweltering Spanish sun.
Belgian youngster De Tier took the points over the Cat.3 Alto Collado de Laude with around 65km remaining. Two and a half minutes further down the road, it was the Bora-Hansgrohe team-mates of the hotly-tipped Sagan who led the chase alongside Molard’s Groupama-FDJ train.
With 48km remaining the pack zipped through the finish area at Pozo Alcon in the opposite direction to that which would take them to the actual finish – enjoying a sweeping descent which, an hour or so later, would turn into a stinging 7% ramp to the line.
Ahead of the decisive final 25km the gap dropped to one minute as the teams of the main favourites – most notably the LottoNL-Jumbo outfit of New Zealander Bennett – jostled for positions ahead of the second categorised climb.
And then the inevitable happened: as the road narrowed into a bottleneck, a touch of wheels knocked riders over like dominoes – disrupting the chase after Woods had ridden clear of De Tier from the break. Belgian Tiesj Benoot (Lotto Soudal) was among the casualties to taste the tarmac.
After an initial slowing in the chase, the peloton swept up the remnants of the break – with Woods the last man standing, caught near the summit of the Cat.3 Alto de Ceal.
Spaniard Llius Mas (Caja-Rural) rode clear on a plateau following the climb – and once again the chase was reticent following that crash involving Quintana. The Colombian was one of a cluster of riders who hit the deck or suffered untimely punctures – most notably the Irishman Dan Martin (UAE Team Emirates) who would eventually ship four minutes.
Ending this truce on the double-digit ramp to the intermediate sprint, Bennett and Britain’s Simon Yates piled on the pressure in a nervous pack once Quintana fought back into the field. But it was Kwiatkowski who led the chase on Mas as the strung-out peloton zipped down the dusty descent – only for three Sky riders to skid off the road on a bend.
Chaos and confusion ensued as the pack split into numerous groups and Herrada rode clear. A six-man chase group formed featuring Quintana, Bennett, Lopez, Ion Izagirre (Bahrain Merida) and Kwiatkowski’s Sky team-mate Tao Geoghegan Hart.
When this move came to nothing, Gallopin threw the dice – and to devastating effect. The 30-year-old zipped past a cooked Herrada and took advantage of the indecision behind.
