The Vuelta a España’s seventh stage brings another opportunity for the climbers, well, mostly Tadej Pogačar. But sure, the others can try to do something, Friday’s race is a 149.9-km route from Vall d’Alba to the ski station at Valdelinares. The finish sits at 1,963 m above sea level, and is a day that has a leg-breaking 3,500 m of climbing.

Stage 7 of La Vuelta a España

The opening 100 km isn’t too bad, but it’s essentially a warm-up for the main event. The difficulty ramps up…a lot after that.

You’ve got the Alto Fuente de Rubielos–its 6 km at 6.3 per cent, then an uncategorized 3.4-km climb averaging 6.6 per cent and the 11.1-km Puerto de San Rafael.

Then comes the fun part.

Valdelinares rises for 9.8 km at an average of 5.9 per cent, but there are sections reaching 13 per cent before easing (sort of) at the summit.

Red jersey Pogačar has already established himself as the rider to beat, but Enric Mas showed on Thursday that the Slovenian can at least be “pressured.” Maybe. Mas briefly moved clear of Pogačar near the summit before losing the sprint for the stage. Although, Pogi did say later he wasn’t expecting the Movistar rider to be there from the race radio, and that he also didn’t have water. The world champ wasn’t making excuses, rather, answering questions about how the heck did someone actually catch him on a climb for once?

The others

The usual suspects—veteran and former winner Primož Roglič, Richard Carapaz, Felix Gall et al.—are among the other GC riders capable of making the finish interesting. . For a guy that had less-than-ideal Vuelta prep, Roglič is riding great. He dropped one spot in the GC on Thursday, but still sits third. There will probably be an early breakaway, but once the big guns start duking it out in the last 50km, it will probably be caught before all-out war on those final climbs.

Coverage begins on Flobikes.com at 7:25 a.m. EDT and you can check back in with Canadian Cycling Magazine for a full report after. Happy Friday!

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