{"id":107715,"date":"2025-08-30T11:19:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-30T11:19:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/107715\/"},"modified":"2025-08-30T11:19:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-30T11:19:10","slug":"no-fun-vuelta-leader-on-first-day-in-red-didnt-really-enjoy-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/107715\/","title":{"rendered":"No Fun! Vuelta leader on first day in red: \u2018Didn\u2019t really enjoy it\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

The first true day in the mountains was not the best way to enjoy wearing the maillot rojo at the Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a.<\/p>\n

Wearing a leader\u2019s jersey of a stage race \u2014 let alone a Grand Tour \u2014 is a special thing. For Torstein Tr\u00e6en, it was nice to show up in the red jersey but it was hardly a walk in un parque.<\/p>\n

Vuelta leader Torstein Tr\u00e6en held firm on the final climb to Cerler<\/a>. He ensured he kept the red jersey for another day. The Bahrain Victorious rider briefly had a moment when Jo\u00e3o Almeida accelerated but quickly regained contact, crossing the line with the same time as the main contenders.<\/p>\n

For the 28-year-old Norwegian, the stage was both demanding and unfamiliar. He told Eurosport<\/a> that riding in the leader\u2019s jersey brought a different kind of pressure, adding that he leaned heavily on the support around him. \u201cOn the last climb, my only job was to stick with the strongest riders \u2014 that in itself felt new to me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Despite surviving the first mountain test, Tr\u00e6en admitted that the stress of protecting red overshadowed any enjoyment. He said he spent most of the stage on edge, focused on not slipping out of the jersey, but suggested he might be able to savour it more during Friday\u2019s flatter run.<\/p>\n

For Ayuso, it was definitely a better day than Thursday, when he fell off the back towards the end. UAE entered the race with two co-leaders for GC. Now, clearly, there is one. However, the Spanish rider can still go for more stage wins while his Portuguese teammate tries to topple the Dane in the overall standings.<\/p>\n

As far as the day\u2019s events, even when the favourites briefly surged clear, Tr\u00e6en said he was confident his overall lead was safe. With 2:33 in hand over Jonas Vingegaard, he will start Stage 8 still in command of the race.<\/p>\n

Saturday\u2019s stage is a relatively (uh, relatively) easy day, which may have a breakaway or sprint. Perhaps the Norwegian can enjoy his very special jersey during the event. It\u2019s Monz\u00f3n Templario \u203a Zaragoza (163.5 km).<\/p>\n

For all the linguist fans of Canadian Cycling Magazine: Tr\u00e6en in Norwegian means \u201ctree.\u201d So let\u2019s leaf it to him to enjoy the day (and I am so sorry, that is a terrible joke).<\/p>\n

Happy Friday. Our Vuelta coverage resumes tomorrow. You can watch it on FloBikes.com and check in with Canadian Cycling Magazine afterward for a full report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The first true day in the mountains was not the best way to enjoy wearing the maillot rojo…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":107716,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[49,48,635,82],"class_list":["post-107715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cycling","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107715","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107715"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107715\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/107716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}