Valverde wins brutal Stage 7 Lopez regains red – Vuelta a Espana
Vuelta a Espana 2019
Stage 7
After Colombian Nairo Quintana paved the way with a series of stinging accelerations, it was the world champion Valverde who sealed the deal by out-kicking Jumbo-Visma’s Roglic on the double-digit former goat-track in the province of Castello in eastern Spain.
Lopez took an impressive third place, six seconds behind and just ahead of Quintana, to move into the red jersey for the third time since Astana’s victory in the opening team time trial last Saturday.
In what is emerging into a four-horse race, Lopez now leads Roglic by six seconds in the general classification, with Valverde 16 seconds down and Quintana, back in the green points jersey, fourth at 27 seconds.
Poland’s Rafal Majka (Bora-Hansgrohe) rallied on the brutal climb to finish 46 seconds down – his fifth place reflected in his position in the GC, a distant 1’58” down on the summit.
Just four kilometres long, but peaking at a maximum gradient of 25 percent, the Alto Mas de la Costa took its toll on the rest of the field with the remaining top 10 hopefuls arriving in dribs and drabs.
But even before the pack rolled onto the fifth and final climb of the 183.km stage, the red jersey was up for grabs after the top two in the overnight standings – Belgium’s Dylan Teuns (Bahrain-Merida) and Spaniard David de la Cruz (Team Ineos) – had been despatched by Movistar’s aggression.
Runner-up on Thursday, Teuns conceded the best part of 10 minutes to plummet out of the top 10, while De la Cruz was almost 16 minutes down to leave Ineos’ GC hopes in tatters.
An average pace just shy of 50kmph over the first hour made it difficult for any early moves to stick as the riders headed off on a flat loop across the coastal plains before heading back inland past Onda and up into the hills of the Sierra Espadan national park.
Wout Poels (Team Ineos), Louis Meintjes (Dimension Data) and Remi Cavagna (Deceuninck-QuickStep) were among the separate early attackers who failed to get any leeway from the rampaging peloton.
Such was the pace that Tejay van Garderen, who started the stage despite the injuries sustained in a dramatic fall on Thursday, called it quits. With an expected broken finger, the American became the third EF Education First rider in the space of a day to withdraw, following Rigoberto Uran and Hugh Carthy.
A move of eight finally extricated itself from the pack after 65km. Jelle Wallays (Lotto Soudal), Philippe Gilbert (Deceuninck-Quick Step), Sergio Henao (UAE Team Emirates), Stéphane Rossetto (Cofidis), Quentin Jauregui (AG2R La Mondiale), Gianluca Brambilla (Trek-Segafredo), Michael Storer (Mitchelton-Scott) and Sebastian Henao (Team Ineos) were eventually joined by Tomasz Marczynski (Lotto Soudal) and Cyril Barthe (Euskadi-Murias) after the pair managed to bridge over.
Boasting four former Vuelta stage winners in Marczynski (Stages 6 and 12, 2017), Wallays (Stage 18, 2018), Brambilla (Stage 15, 2016) and Gilbert (Stages 3 and 19, 2010; Stages 9 and 19, 2012; Stage 12, 2013), the 10-man move soon established a lead of four minutes over the pack.
The older of the Henao cousins, Sergio, formerly of Team Sky, led the break over the first three categorised ascents before the gap stretched above the five-minute mark ahead of the intermediate sprint back in Onda.
Movistar then took matters in their own hands, taking the reins from the Bahrain-Merida team of the overnight race leader, Teuns, and setting a ferocious tempo.
In the chaos which followed, Britain’s James Knox (Deceuninck-QuickStep) crashed while both Sergio Higuita (EF Education First) and the polka dot jersey Angel Madrazo (Burgos-BH) had their work cut out after picking up untimely mechanicals.
The Movistar pace-setting slashed the lead of the break to around three minutes going onto the penultimate climb as storm clouds gathered.
At 10km in length, the Cat.2 Puerto del Salto del Caballo caused the expected selection as 10 became four on the front: Henao taking the points once again over the top ahead of his cousin Sebastian, Gilbert and Brambilla.
Behind, Movistar had whittled the peloton down to an elite chase group with red jersey Teuns and Spaniard De la Cruz of Ineos among those dropped.
Britain’s Tao Geoghegan Hart tried to kickstart his Vuelta with an attack near the summit, but the Ineos rider was caught shortly after the summit.
With the Astana team of Lopez taking over from Movistar on the front, EF Education First’s calamitous race continued after Higuita crashed on the descent – although the 22-year-old eventually finished in 22nd place, 3’40” down.
Back with the leaders, Gilbert danced clear with UAE Team Emirates’ Henao to distance the other pair ahead of the final climb. But both riders were swept up as soon as the gradient ramped up on the final climb.
If the main pack had been whittled down to around a dozen riders at the start of the climb, it was soon a battle between four after Quintana followed a brief Sepp Kuss-fuelled Jumbo-Visma blitz by stepping on the pedals with authority to pull out teammate Valverde, Roglic and Lopez with him.
The quartet traded blows but the steep gradient acted as a leveller, and for long periods they rode in a line across the narrow concrete track, honours even, punctuated only by regular digs by Quintana.
The final hairpins amid the pine trees then coaxed the winning streak out of Valverde’s ageing, yet still performing, limbs. And when the sprint opened up, the 39-year-old looked the only likely winner – notching the 12th stage win in his 13th Vuelta, and the 123rd win of his entire career.
Special mention must go to Majka for battling on and for strong performances from Ion Izagirre (Astana), UAE Team Emirates pair Tadej Pogacar and Fabio Aru, George Bennett (Jumbo-Visma) and Oscar Rodriguez (Euskadi-Murias), who all came home inside the top 10 within 1’20” of the winner.
Slovenia’s Pogacar – at 20, the youngest rider in the race – rose to sixth place in the general classification and above the Colombian Esteban Chaves (Mitchelton-Scott), who finished the stage in 13th place.
Pogacar will move back into the white youth classification jersey by virtue of Lopez, whom he trails by 2’36”, being in red. Meanwhile, Madrazo retained the polka dot jersey but saw his lead slashed to 16 points following Henao’s KoM points haul from the break.
Coming up: Stage 8 – Valls to Igualada (166.9km)
After three successive summit finishes, the race organisers throw the opposite at the riders: a flat finish after a fast descent. The unpredictable stage plays out over rolling roads but just the one categorised climb, the Cat.2 Puerto de Montserrat, which is followed by a plateau ahead of the descent 20km from the finish.
A reduced bunch sprint could take place although the climb should be enough to despatch most of the pure sprinters, so we cannot rule out the possibility of a breakaway going the distance.
