Tom Pidcock remains in overall contention after the first mountainous days of La Vuelta, with the Q36.5 cyclist keeping alive his hopes of a top-ten finish on general classification.
The man from Leeds finished safely within the group of favourites, including two-times Tour de France winner Jonas Vingegaard of Visma-Lease a Bike and João Almeida of UAE Team Emirates XRG, after 188 kilometres and four categorised climbs on stage seven of La Vuelta.
Before La Vuelta began, Pidcock made his goals clear: first, he wanted to see how well he could do on GC; second, he wanted to come away with a stage win.
While he is yet to celebrate a stage victory, he will be happy with how the first week has gone as he remains only 30 seconds behind the race favourite, Vingegaard, who sits second overall behind Bahrain Victorious’s Torstein Traeen.
The Norwegian is only the third man from his country to wear the Red Jersey and he did an excellent job to preserve his lead, also managing to stick with the group of favourites. He will be content in the jersey and will want to hold it for as long as possible.
The stage victory ultimately went to Juan Ayuso, securing a third win in a row for UAE at this Vuelta. After losing almost 12 minutes on GC on stage six on Thursday, the Spaniard took a dominant victory after escaping from the early breakaway group and going solo on the 12.1km climb into Celer.
“It’s amazing, after the Giro [d’Italia], when I won my first grand-tour stage, to win a stage here in La Vuelta, which, for me, is my favourite race,” Ayuso said. “And the way I won today is something I’ll remember always, and I’m just super proud.
“We don’t have a sprinter, so tomorrow I think we won’t win, but we hope we can carry on like this.”
Ayuso has time to bask in the limelight after riding solo to victory in Cerler on Friday’s seventh stage
JOSEP LAGO/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
Pidcock will be happy with his performance against some of the very best climbers in the world, with the Tour de France and Giro winner Egan Bernal of Ineos Grenadiers also among them. When Almeida and his team accelerated up the final climb, the Briton was almost dropped but dug deep to come back and lead the group across the line, 2min 35sec behind Ayuso.
This meant Pidcock, 26, moved into 11th place overall before a rare day of rest for the GC contenders on Saturday, when the peloton heads from Monzón Templario to Zaragoza, covering a 164km route over flat roads that should suit the sprinters. Then, on Sunday, there is a punchy uphill finish that Pidcock may like the look of.
So far he has shown consistency, a valuable trait in a GC rider, but in the second week he is going to have to prove he can throw punches too.
How they stand after stage seven1, T Traen (Nor, Bahrain Victorious) 25:18:022, J Vingegaard (Den, Visma-Lease a Bike) at 2:333, J Almeida (Por, UAE Team Emirates-XRG) 2:414, G Ciccone (It, Lidl-Trek) 2:425, L Fortunato (It, XDS Astana) 2:476, M Jorgenson (US, Visma-Lease a Bike) 2:497, J Hindley (Aus, Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) 2:538, G Pellizzari (It, Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) same time9, E Bernal (Col, INEOS Grenadiers) 2:5510, F Gall (Austria, Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) 2:5811, Pidcock (GB, Q36.5 Pro Cycling) 3:03.