2018 Vuelta a España Stage 7 Results & Recap
Stage 7 of the 2018 Vuelta a España is in the books. The final results and standings are below, followed by our recap of how the race unfolded.
Race Recap
Gallopin wins stage 7\nBy Clara Beard
Tony Gallopin (AG2R-La Mondiale) soloed to stage 7 Vuelta victory after a late attack out of a group of favorites in the last final kilometres to Pozo Alcon. The Frenchman attacked at the perfect moment to hold off world champion Peter Sagan and Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) by five seconds.
“Winning a stage at La Vuelta was part of the plan, it was one of the team’s goals,” Gallopin said. “The idea is also to do good on the general classification but if there was an opportunity for a stage win, I had to seize it. I’ve been very unlucky this season but the team believed in me for La Vuelta and that’s the best way to repay them. The last 20 kilometres were really difficult. It was narrow roads, technical downhills. We’ve seen crashes, attacks from the favourites. I stayed in a good position and waited for the right moment to get back to Herrada and counter-attack. It’s fantastic. To win ahead of riders like Sagan or Valverde means something. I felt from the start of La Vuelta I have good legs. I’ve lost weight, I’ve trained in the mountains and there’s something to do with the general classification. I have nothing to lose, and if I hit the wall someday, then I’ll aim for another stage win.”
In the overall competition, Rudy Molard (Groupama-FDJ) stays in red jersey and Michal Kwiatkowski (Team Sky) lost 25 seconds after crashing in the hectic finale.
“In the end, it went well from me,” Molard said. “The finale suited my abilities, I was feeling confident. The pace was really high, anything could have happened. We saw Kwiatkowski crash, there were lots of attacks. Even with good legs, it was really hard. We’re going to keep the same strategy. Today we were at the front all day long, it saves some energy and it helps protect Thibaut (Pinot). With the hard pace from Bora, it was better to be in a good position. We hope things will be easier tomorrow but there are no easy days at La Vuelta. We have to take things day by day, try to enjoy this jersey. The guys did an amazing job and we have to maintain the same mentality. On Sunday at La Covatilla, I will try to keep up. It suits Valverde’s abilities and I think he will go for the red jersey.”
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) made up the break of the day. Like in days previous, the peloton kept a close eye on the seven and kept their advantage to a max of four minutes.
They were reeling in on the final climb, Woods the last after a strong attack. With Movistar setting the majority of the pace in the bunch, it was all together with 10 kilometres to go and any attempts to launch late attacks neutralized until Gallopin’s success. \n
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