Discover the Stage 7 highlights
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DeportesTranscripción
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.