Extended Highlights - Stage 7 - La Vuelta 2024

Name: Extended Highlights - Stage 7 - La Vuelta 2024
Uploaded: 2024-08-23T18:36:58+00:00
Duration: 8 min 43 s
Channel: La Vuelta

La Vuelta

23/8/2024

Discover the Stage 7 highlights

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00:00Ben O'Connor turned La Vuelta on its head yesterday, powering to a sensational solo

00:13victory and opening up a big lead overall.

00:16His rivals could only stand back and applaud.

00:19Obviously, he did a tremendous job, like really, really strong out there.

00:24Definitely a big performance from O'Connor.

00:28Our goal was to give Futuristic away and now we will try and get it back.

00:32When?

00:33We will see.

00:34Not today.

00:36Not today because stage 7 is one for the punchier sprinters.

00:39There's only one climb, the aptly named 14% pass, but it comes late in the day and could

00:45prevent Wout van Aertenco from enjoying a full-blown bunch sprint.

00:49It's not an original name, but it's easy for us to know what's coming, so I guess there

00:55is a steep ramp in the end and that will be probably also the most tricky part for

00:59me.

01:00Yeah, we will see.

01:01I mean, it depends on who is active and what's the situation, but like I said, we try to

01:07make it a sprint.

01:09The stage 5 winner, Pavel Bitner, has been one of the revelations of the past few weeks

01:13and he's also hoping to be up there in the final.

01:16Yeah, I think it really depends how we race today.

01:19If the GC guys decide they want to go full gas on the climb, then it's, I think, also

01:24for most of the heavier guys really hard to follow, but I'm here in good shape and we

01:29will try our best to try to go for another sprint.

01:33Caden Groves is still plan A for Alpecin de Koenig, but should the final climb prove

01:37too tough for the Australian sprinter, they do have other options.

01:42Before the 14%, there's like 6km at like 4-5%, which is completely fine.

01:48I think it's also a big road, so it should be just one final explosion on the end of

01:53the climb, but we'll see.

01:55It can also be a breakaway day and it's very unpredictable, this stage, I think.

02:03180km today from Arcidona to Cordoba, which has previously seen wins for the likes of

02:08Sagan at Degenkolb and Kort.

02:10It's all about that solitary climb, the 14%, which actually has an average gradient of

02:145.6%, but the steepest pinches could make the difference as the punchers or even the

02:20GC riders try to drop the pure sprinters.

02:23Well, there wasn't to be a repeat of yesterday's scenario when lots of riders tried to get

02:32into an early breakaway.

02:34On the contrary, only a single man decided to go up the road.

02:38That was Zabieh Esasa of Ushkotel Ushkadi, who was also in the breakaway on stage 3.

02:46The peloton gave him a maximum gap of almost 10 minutes, but the sprint teams began to

02:50take turns on the front and it was soon down to around 7.

02:55No major surprise to see Wismar-Lise Baik and Alpecin Deceuninck pacing the bunch on

02:59behalf of Van Aerten-Groves.

03:01At this rate, they were set to catch Esasa around the intermediate sprint, which came

03:05just before the 14% pass.

03:07Van Aerten-Groves would no doubt be eyeing up green jersey points.

03:12For O'Connor, this was a first day in the leader's jersey of a Grand Tour.

03:16In fact, he is the first rider from the Cathlon AG2R ever to lead La Vuelta.

03:21The team has existed since 1992 and in that time only four of their riders have led a

03:25Grand Tour, all wearing the yellow jersey at the Tour de France.

03:32Into the final 100km and the gap to Esasa had dropped to around 5 minutes.

03:37The pace was a bit higher than it has been on previous sprint days, with an average speed

03:41of over 40km an hour.

03:44And the stage was set to burst into life as they prepared to cross the finish line for

03:48the first time and enter the final circuit around Córdoba.

03:52Esasa's lead was now cut to under a minute.

03:5632 seconds is the advantage, a little click through the gears, out of the saddle, there's

04:05the intermediate sprint, he's going to take the 20 points in that classification.

04:10His advantage out front is going to be short-lived because take a look behind as speed starts

04:16to increase, there's Wout van Aert and Caden Groves.

04:22Esasa was swallowed up just after the intermediate sprint as several GC teams began to up the

04:27ante before the climb.

04:29Red Bull Bora Hansgrohe in particular were determined to be in a good position at the

04:33foot of the 14% pass.

04:36They continued to set the tempo on the early slopes with lots of riders going backwards.

04:41The peloton really being thinned out into what was essentially a GC group, although

04:45van Aert was still up there in the green jersey.

04:49Red Bull doing plenty of damage and Primoz Roglic himself pounced before the summit,

04:54the Slovenian helping himself to six bonus seconds.

04:57Most of the sprinters had dropped at this point, but van Aert was at the front, with

05:01Groves in a chase group just a few seconds behind.

05:09Oh, and Groves is down and he looked over his left-hand shoulder, he's touched the wheel

05:14as he comes to the top of this king of the mountain, the Alto del 14% and it's Groves

05:19who had hoped to end into Cordoba with a bunch sprint, who's touched wheels, he's come down.

05:27Disaster for Groves then, but other riders began to catch up on the descent, where Marc

05:32Soler decided to try his luck solo.

05:36The Spaniard, who already has two Vuelta stage wins on his CV, putting around 20 seconds

05:41clear and there weren't many domestiques left at the front to chase him down.

05:46With 10k to go and alarm bells ringing, van Aert tried to hunt down Soler himself, but

05:50he quickly abandoned the idea.

05:53This was looking good for the Spaniard, who was making the most of a lack of cohesion

05:56behind, but then enter Sepp Kuss.

06:00The defending champion putting in a huge turn on behalf of his team-mate van Aert and dragging

06:05the group across to Soler.

06:07The UAE man resisting well on the wide roads into Cordoba, but he was eventually caught.

06:13His team-mate Pavel Sivakov then gave it a go, but it was a tough ask, van Aert perfectly

06:17placed on the wheel of Alexander Vlasov.

06:21Coming through and it's Sivakov who's got a slender advantage.

06:24He's gasping for everything he's got left and he's giving Vlasov a hard time.

06:29Van Aert is poised, waiting in that green jersey, ready to pounce.

06:33Now he starts to accelerate.

06:35Paschere is there for Groupama FDG.

06:38We're taking a look at the finish, coming into the finish line here in Cordoba.

06:41Van Aert in the green jersey, he's coming to the line and he takes his second stage

06:45victory in La Vuelta a España.

06:48He says thanks very much Sepp Kuss, you were the best team-mate for me.

06:53Van Aert doubling up after a barnstorming end to this seventh stage.

06:57He didn't have to contend with Groves in the sprint, but without that magnificent pull

07:01from last year's winner Kuss, this could well have been Soler's day.

07:05The Belgian was full of praise for his American team-mate at the finish line.

07:11Sepp did such an amazing job.

07:14Our team is not only about winning, but about performing as a team and making challenging

07:20plans and a part of that is that everybody dares to sacrifice himself for the others.

07:26The defending champion of this race pulling for you, that's a huge example of our team

07:31philosophy so because of that I'm so proud.

07:36You wait six months for a win and then two come along in the space of five days.

07:40Van Aert taking it comfortably ahead of Matthias Van Scheck, who was also second in the opening

07:44time trial.

07:45Mikel, Kung and Hermans round out the top five.

07:50O'Connor now leads Roglic by four minutes, 45 due to those six bonus seconds.

07:54Florian Lipovic slips down to eighth after finishing in the second group at 17 seconds.

07:59While this can end up being a decisive day in the green jersey competition, a victory

08:04for Van Aert and that nasty crash for Groves, the gap is now 41 points.

08:10Sylvain Monniquet is still the king of the mountains, just about, but Roglic has cut

08:14his lead to just one point.

08:19And Antonio Tiberi has recovered the white jersey with just six seconds separating the

08:23top three and less than a minute between the top six.

08:28There should be more fireworks at the end of tomorrow's stage, which features a gruelling

08:35uphill finish.

08:36Do join us for that on Saturday and thanks for watching.

Extended Highlights - Stage 7 - La Vuelta 2024

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