A big day for Norway, after a sad one for the Scandinavian country. King Harald V died on Thursday, but Uno-x as Andreas Leknessund turned an aggressive start to Stage 7 of the Vuelta a España into a beautiful finale. The Norwegian rode away from Wout van Aert on the final climb to take the dub.
Leknessund was part of the action almost immediately after the 149.8-km stage from Vall d’Alba got underway. Van Aert made the first move, and Leknessund and Milan Vader quickly joined him at the front.
Stage 7 recap
The breakaway was eventually joined by Tobias Halland Johannessen, Alexey Lutsenko and Eddie Dunbar, forming a five-rider group that managed to stay clear as the peloton settled into the mountainous stage.
Van Aert was able to collect valuable points at the intermediate sprint–20 in fact–but the decisive action came on the final ascent to Valdelinares. Leknessund proved strongest when the road tilted sharply upward. He took off and made a gap that grew to just under half a minute.
Johannessen helped keep the chase under control, while Van Aert was unable to match Leknessund’s pace.
The Norwegian crossed the finish line 34 seconds ahead of his teammate. Van Aert came in third at 47 seconds.
Pogačar pads his lad
Behind the breakaway, Tadej Pogačar successfully, well, decisively, defended his red jersey. Felix Gall and his Decathlon CMA CGM pals pushed the pace late in the stage, but Pogačar easily responded to Gall’s attack and ultimately gained more time on his overall rivals.
Pogi now leads Enric Mas by almost four minutes, with his fellow Slovenian Primož Roglič in third at 4:50. And there’s still two weeks of racing…and lots more mountains to come.
Saturday’s Stage 8 is relatively straightforward, but the race from Puçol to Xeraco (171km) has a punchy Cat 3 climb in the last 30 km.