Vuelta a Espana 2024: Van Aert triumphs on stage 7 - Lipowitz has to give up white
Thomas Goldmann
· 23.08.2024
The 7th stage of the Vuelta a Espana 2024 delivered a spectacular finale. Wout van Aert (Visma | Lease a Bike) won the sprint of a peloton of just 33 riders after 180.5 kilometres between Archidona and Cordoba ahead of Mathias Vacek (Lidl-Trek) and Pau Miquel (Equipo Kern Pharma). It was van Aert's second stage win in the Tour of Spain 2024, having already won the third stage in Castelo Branco on Portuguese soil.
Wout van Aert praises Sepp Kuss
Van Aert praised his team-mate Sepp Kuss in particular, who had worked hard for him in the final. "Sepp did a fantastic job. I don't know if people know what it's like to ride such leads with less than 60 kilograms on the flat. I had goose bumps on his rear wheel and just wanted to finish. This is a great victory."
The previous day's winner Ben O'Connor (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) confidently defended the red jersey. In contrast, the German Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) had to take off the white jersey of the best young pro after just one day. The 23-year-old lost the connection on the Alto del 14%, the only categorised climb of the day, in the finale and reached the finish 17 seconds behind the day's winner. Lipowitz is now six seconds behind the current best young pro, Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain-Victorious).
Things went better for Lipowitz' boss Primoz Roglic, however. The Slovenian was able to secure six bonus seconds on the Alto del 14% and thus make up some ground on O'Connor in the overall standings.
Vuelta a Espana 2024 - Results: the top 10 of stage 7
- Wout van Aert (Visma | Lease a Bike) 4:15:39
- Mathias Vacek (Lidl-Trek) +0:00
- Pau Miquel (Equipo Kern Pharma) +0:00
- Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ) +0:00
- Quinten Hermans (Alpecin-Deceuninck) +0:00
- Quentin Pacher (Groupama-FDJ) +0:00
- Lorenzo Rota (Intermarche-Wanty) +0:00
- Harold Tejada (Astana Qazaqstan Team) +0:00
- Max Poole (Team dsm-firmenich PostNL) +0:00
- George Bennett (Israel-Premier Tech) +0:00
The overall standings of the Tour of Spain 2024
- Ben O'Connor (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) 27:44:07
- Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) +4:45
- Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) +4:59
- Enric Mas (Movistar) +5:23
- Cristian Rodriguez (Arkea-B&B Hotels) +5:26
- Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain-Victorious) +5:29
- Lennert van Eetvelt (Lotto-Dstny) +5:32
- Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) +5:35
- Felix Gall (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) +5:38
- Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) +5:49
How the 7th stage of the Vuelta a Espana 2024 went
There were two tasks before the start of stage 7 of the Tour of Spain 2024: Damiano Caruso (Bahrain-Victorious) had to end the race early due to illness, Andreas Kron (Lotto-Dstny) after suffering a concussion in a crash the day before. The seventh stage of the Vuelta 2024 initially had little to offer in terms of racing. Shortly after the start, Xabier Isasa (Euskaltel-Euskadi) broke away from the peloton. As a solo breakaway rider, the 22-year-old built up a lead of more than eight and a half minutes.
In the peloton, Visma | Lease a Bike for Wout van Aert and Alpecin-Deceuninck for Kaden Groves set the pace. The race situation remained stable for a long time. The highlight for many riders was cooling off in temperatures of around 36°C, which the fire brigade provided with water hoses from the roadside.
Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe sets the pace
The race became fast when it crossed the finish line in Cordoba for the first time and entered the climb to the Alto del 14%. For Isasa, this meant the end of his breakaway attempt 38 kilometres before the finish. Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe set the pace in the peloton, tackling the climb from the front and tearing the peloton apart. In the meantime, Primoz Roglic was at the front, while his team-mate Florian Lipowitz could no longer keep up.
On the crest, Roglic secured six bonus seconds ahead of Sepp Kuss (Visma | Lease a Bike) and Richard Carapaz (EF Education EasyPost). A short time later, Kaden Groves got caught on the rear wheel of the rider in front of him on the climb and crashed. As a result, the Australian lost all chances of getting back into the front group. After the crest, Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates) broke away at the front of the peloton and at one point opened up a 25-second lead over the extremely thinned-out peloton.
Kuss sacrifices himself for van Aert
At the end of the descent, Wout van Aert attacked himself, but was unable to get away. Visma | Lease a Bike then sent Sepp Kuss on the attack, but the winner of the 2023 Vuelta a Espana was also countered. Kuss then sacrificed himself for van Aert and led the group back to Soler with three and a half kilometres to go.
UAE Team Emirates did not give up and sent Pavel Sivakov on the attack a little later, but this attack was not to be crowned with success either. Aleksandr Vlasov followed up for Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe. Van Aert was already lurking on his rear wheel, sprinting away 200 metres before the finish and taking his second stage win at the Vuelta - his first on Spanish soil.
