2019 Vuelta a España Stage 7 Results & Recap
Stage 7 of the 2019 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
Valverde on top in Mas de la Costa
On the unforgiving final metres of stage 7’s summit finish, Alejandro Valverde (Team Movistar) used his years of experience to come out on top ahead of Primoz Roglic (Jumbo Visma). Miguel Angel Lopez and Nairo Quintana were also part of the select group that came to the line together in Mas de la Costa, and finished six seconds back.
Lopez’s performance placed him back in the leader’s jersey after Dylan Teuns (Bahrain Merida) short reign was abdicated after he cracked on the penultimate climb. Roglic sits in second at six seconds and Valverde’s victory moved him into third overall.
A long, flat speedy opening to stage 7 meant the pace was the highest this year’s Vuelta has seen in the first half. After 75km, Gianluca Brambilla (TFS), Philippe Gilbert (DQT), Sergio Henao (UAD), Sebastián Henao (INS), Quentin Jauregui (ALM), Stéphane Rossetto (COF), Michael Storer (SUN) and Jelle Wallays (LTS) finally broke free. Tomasz Marczynski (LTS) and Cyril Barthe (EUS) made the first chase.
When the peloton settled back and allowed the breakaway to escape, Wallays dropped back to collect his teammate Marczynski and paced him in with the leaders.
The gap, which reached five minutes before the series of KOM climbs, was less than two and a half minutes on the Puerto del Salto del Cabello. Sensing the danger, Gilbert and Sergio Henao shook off the rest of the breakaway and went forward together. Sebastian Henao and Gianluca Brambilla quickly joined forces. It wasn’t long, however, that Movistar put an end to all of the breakaway’s antics on the lower slopes of the final climb.
The gradients reached 25 percent, which didn’t phase Quintana, who threw in a series of testing attacks that left him with Roglic, Valverde and Lopez. \n
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