Vuelta a España stage 7 preview - Can Træen hold off Vingegaard?

For the first time in this Vuelta, the riders will tackle back-to-back summit finishes. After a foray into Andorra on Thursday, the Vuelta returns to Spain on stage 7, and this time for good.

The stage concludes with the summit finish in Cerler, which has featured many times during the 1980s and 1990s in particular.

Key information:

Date: Friday, 29 August
Start: 11:55 (CET)
Expected finish: 17:13 (CET)
Stage type: Mountain
Stage length: 188km
Elevation gain: 4,211m

Follow stage 7 live via our live report!

The stage begins in Andorra, but very swiftly enters Spain after 6.3km. The riders will travel the same distance once more to the foot of the first climb of the day, the Port del Cantó.

Standing at 24.7km in length, with an average gradient of 4.4%, the climb has earned a Category 1 status. The official categorisation of the climb is slightly misleading, as there are plateau sections throughout, which can skew the difficulty of the gradients, with a steep section at the bottom where the gradients reach over 10%

It is, in fact, the start of the climb which is most difficult, and the strongest riders who want to feature in the breakaway could make their move here if the fight is still on.

The Port del Cantó has actually featured more recently in the Tour de France than it has in the Vuelta a España. This came back in 2016 on stage 9, where Tom Dumoulin was victorious in atrocious weather conditions in Andorra. Its last appearance in the Vuelta was twelve years ago, when Alexandre Geniez won solo atop Peyragudes on stage 15 in 2013.

A pair of category 2 climbs make up the middle portion of the stage, which will continue to build fatigue and add to the total tally of over 4,200 metres of climbing on stage 7. The Puerto de la Creu de Perves is 5.7km in length, averaging 6.3%, and will be crested with 80.3km remaining. 

Following this is the Coll de l'Espina, which is 7.1km at 5.5%, with the crest closer to the finish with 46.5km remaining. The climbing continues following the official top of the climb for a short while before the final big descent begins.

The stage is most likely to be decided on the slopes of the category 1 climb to Cerler. Like the Port del Cantó, the climb to Cerler is also inconsistent in its nature. The official categorisation of the Cerler climb is 12.1km at 5.8% with a tough start. 

The first couple of kilometres reach tough gradients of around 8-10%, before a brief plateau. This is followed by the toughest section of the climb of around 2km, where the gradient never falters below the 7% mark and reaches 11%. 

Following this, the gradient slightly eases for a short section before a brief descent within the climb. From here on in, with just over 3km remaining, the gradients are friendlier at the 5-7% mark before the climbing completely eases inside the final few hundred metres to the finish line. 

Based on this, it's fair to suggest the most damage on the climb could be done in the early stages, or the middle half, rather than the final couple of kilometres.

Cerler made its debut hosting a Vuelta stage finish back in 1987, where Spanish rider Laudelino Cubino, racing for the BH team, won the first of three stages at the race in his career. 

Cerler featured as a stage finish for four consecutive editions following its debut in 1987 and saw stage wins for Fabio Enrique Parra, Pedro Delgado, José Martín Farfán, and Ivan Ivanov, respectively. In total, 11 Vuelta stages have finished in Cerler.

Jonas Vingegaard (Visma | Lease a Bike) may have lost the race leader’s red jersey to Torstein Træen (Bahrain-Victorious), but the Dane proved once more that he is still the man to beat overall. With already one stage win in the bag, it remains to be seen how keen the Dane is to land another one before the first rest day, as it proved not to be a priority on stage 6.

The American duo of Sepp Kuss and Matteo Jorgenson were still part of the selective GC group of 10 riders that crossed the line, illustrating the strength in depth of the Dutch team with many more mountain stages on the horizon in weeks two and three. Based on this, Vingegaard should be well supported once more on stage 7, and this is a big advantage for his GC ambitions, and perhaps an opportunity to win the stage also.

Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) is well and truly up for the fight, with the Italian the first rider to throw a haymaker from the GC group at the end of stage 6. While he wasn’t able to distance Vingegaard and the gaps to the riders behind weren’t major at the finish, Ciccone proved that he currently has the punch to be able to mix it up with the Dane and fellow GC contenders in the opening week. 

Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) seems to be going under the radar so far, but the Colombian champion looked comfortable and able to follow the main moves in the finale which bodes well for stage 7.

Meanwhile, Red Bull-BORA hansgrohe remain well placed with their designated team leader Jai Hindley, and young Italian prodigy Giulio Pellizzari also finishing in the first GC group. 

Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain-Victorious), Felix Gall (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), Tom Pidcock (Q36.5), and Matthew Riccitello (Israel-Premier Tech) all appear to be in good shape after finishing in the front GC group on stage 6, and will be aiming to kick on from here after a positive result.

Stage 3 winner David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ), who lost time alongside the likes of Mikel Landa (Soudal-QuickStep) and Ben O’Connor (Jayco AlUla), will be looking to bounce back after conceding 28 seconds to the main GC group.

For UAE Team Emirates-XRG, there will be a sense of mixed emotions after Vine’s stage win. João Almeida proved to have the shape to compete after the Portuguese rider bridged across to Vingegaard and Ciccone before even having a dig of his own. At the same time, we got an answer to the question in regards to the team leadership situation, as Juan Ayuso was distanced on the final climb and finished the stage in 62nd, shipping over seven minutes to the main GC group. 

While the 22-year-old maintained positive in his post-race interview, explaining he wasn’t targeting the GC and rather a stage win, it is still a blow for the team, as they have lost that additional card to play from a GC capacity, which could have been a big advantage over many other teams.

Will we see back-to-back successes for the breakaway? After Jay Vine’s (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) excellent victory in Pal, it's clear to see that there is scope for plenty of breakaway success throughout this Vuelta, with no team fully committed to chasing the escapees on stage 6.

The Australian won his first two Vuelta stages only two days apart back in 2022, so he can’t be ruled out of doubling up, particularly because of the sheer ease withwhich he was able to win on stage 6. Marc Soler looked solid behind and could be another card to play.

Riders who may roll the dice if they have recovered from their efforts on stage 6 include Bruno Armirail (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), Lorenzo Fortunato (XDS Astana), and Pablo Castrillo (Movistar).

Other riders who kept their powder dry but could be on the move on Friday include Wout Poels and Harold Martín Lopez (XDS Astana), Javier Romo (Movistar), Cristián Rodríguez and Raúl García Pierna (Arkéa B&B Hotels), Junior Lecerf (Soudal-QuickStep), Carlos Verona (Lidl-Trek), Marco Frigo (Israel-Premier Tech) and Eddie Dunbar and Chris Harper (Jayco AlUla), among others. 

The final question to be asked is whether Træen can keep the red jersey. The Norwegian rider holds a 31-second lead over Armirail, and more significantly, 2:33 over Vingegaard. Arguably, Træen could try to feature in the breakaway once more if he has recovered well enough, as it's very possible he could lose his advantage over Vingegaard. 

That will depend on how much the other GC riders perceive him as a threat. Tiberi is the team's main GC leader, and Santiago Buitrago remains a wildcard.

Vuelta a España stage 7 favourites

⭐️⭐️⭐️ Jonas Vingegaard
⭐️⭐️ Giulio Ciccone, João Almeida, Egan Bernal, Felix Gall
⭐️ Jay Vine, Cristián Rodríguez, Eddie Dunbar, Raúl García Pierna, Marco Frigo

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