Juan Ayuso strikes back with mountain stage win, Træen remains leader
The 22-year-old Spanish rider climbed to victory on the climb to Cerler after falling out of the GC picture on stage 6
After dropping out of the general classification battle on Thursday, Juan Ayuso won the Vuelta a España’s second Pyrenean mountain top stage to Cerler on Friday with an audacious solo move.
The UAE Team Emirates-XRG rider instigated the day’s breakaway early in the stage, then attacked it at the bottom of the final climb, riding the final 12km largely alone, making it three consecutive victories for the team.
Marco Frigo (Israel-Premier Tech) had initially worked with the Spaniard but was joined by Raúl García Pierna (Arkea-B&B Hotels), the pair working unsuccessfully to bring Ayuso back. Frigo eventually took second place, with García Pierna third.
In the GC group, Ayuso’s team mates set up an attack for João Almeida, the Portuguese rider, making his move 4km from the line. Behind him, Jonas Vingegaard (Visma | Lease a Bike) and Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) were able to hold the wheel, the pace eased, and a group re-formed.
After his Bahrain Victorious team rode on the front for much of the day, Torstein Træen remains in the leader’s red jersey, finishing with the rest of the GC group, though Vingegaard is now second and Almeida third.
The battle for the winning breakaway has been long and vicious. Ayuso was first to get away, riding alone for almost all the day’s first 25km classified climb, the Port del Cantó. On the descent, he was joined by 12 others, the group’s lead never exceeding 4:30 and at 3:35, when they began the final climb to the finish at the ski resort of Cerler.
How it unfolded
For stage seven the Vuelta a España stayed in the mountains, a second, even more brutal day on the cards, with 4,212m of vertical ascent across the 188km stage between Andorra la Vella and Cerler. The final climb to the small ski resort averaged 5.9% over its 12.1km, but ascended in log ramps, some of which exceeded 9%.
At almost 25km the Port del Cantó was the longest climb of the entire Vuelta, but the day’s breakaway had still not established itself when they reached the opening ramps, 12km into the stage. After losing more than seven minutes on the other GC riders, Ayuso spent the majority of the climb alone off the front, team mate and king of the mountains, Jay Vine leading early attempts to bridge.
The frantic start put Jonas Vingegaard’s Visma | Lease a Bike team under pressure, the squad trying to exert some control and losing riders in the process, though eventually, the Bahrain Victorious team of red jersey Torstein Træen offered some assistance.
Eventually Ayuso crested the climb only 17 seconds ahead of the peloton, with Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) leading a group of chasers, with 38km ridden. On the descent Ayuso was finally joined by a chasing group and a 13-man breakaway formed, with the peloton one minute back.
The break comprised of Ayuso, Vine, Pedersen, Sean Quinn, Jardi van der Lee (both EF Education-EasyPost), Damien Howson (Q36.5), Harold Tejada (XDS Astana), Brieuc Rolland (Groupama-FDJ), Joel Nicolau (Caja Rural), Kevin Vermaerke (Picnic-PostNL), Eduardo Sepúlveda (Lotto), Marco Frigo (Israel-Premier Tech) and Raúl García Pierna (Arkea-B&B Hotels) who was the closest on GC, starting the day only 4:57 behind Træen.
With 100km to go and the second category Puerto de la Creu de Perves looming, Bahrain Victorious head allowed the breakaway a lead of around four minutes, and there it stayed. At the top there was a fight for the mountains points, Vine coming winning maximum points ahead of Nicolau and Quinn. The American did the same on the penultimate climb, the Coll de l’Espina, though by then Van der Lee had been dropped.
Pedersen took maximum points at the intermediate sprint, then, with the final climb rearing up ahead of them dropped back, the peloton now 3:35 behind, 12km to go.
As Visma | Lease a Bike led the peloton onto the climb, Ayuso attacked the breakaway, Frigo quickly bridging to him, the pair working to build a lead, while Quinn tried to chase them down. Before the American could reach them, though, Ayuso attacked again and rode away to victory.
