Vuelta a España stage 7: Jesús Herrada wins as breakaway holds off peloton

Spain’s Jesús Herrada clocked up the second Vuelta a España stage win of his career, launching a perfectly-timed finishing sprint to take stage 7 of the race in Cistierna.

The Cofidis rider overhauled Fred Wright (Bahrain-Victorious) close to the line, with a fast-closing Samuele Battistella (Astana Qazaqstan) coming up just short and having to settle for second place. Jimmy Janssens (Alpecin-Deceuninck) and Harry Sweeny (Lotto Soudal) were fourth and fifth, that group finishing 29 seconds ahead of the main peloton.

The quintet were part of a six man breakaway which went clear almost immediately after the start, with one of those riders later dropped. While the bunch was driven by the Trek-Segafredo team by Mads Pedersen before the day’s category one climb and indeed on the ascent itself, Pedersen’s rival for the green jersey Sam Bennett managed to stay close enough to rejoin on the descent.

This caused a stall and with the sprinters’ teams not fully committed, the break was able to stay clear. Overall leader Remco Evenepoel (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl) finished in the bunch and retained his 21 second advantage over Rudy Molard (Groupama-FDJ).

Bennett (Bora-hansgrohe) won the sprint for sixth. With Pedersen back in ninth, he extended his lead in the points competition from nine to 15 points, but his relative ease in taking the gallop means he will rue the break being able to stay clear.

Herrada wept after the finish, relishing his win. He was more composed afterwards and reflected on the victory. “It was a craziness. Three kilometers from the finish we didn’t have any references as to what our advantage would be. So we weren’t sure. We had to be patient and try, but we didn’t know the time gaps. So it was nervous. I was on Fred’s wheel but I trusted my own speed at the end. I held it very, very late and then I went for it.”

He won his previous Vuelta stage back in 2019 and worked hard to land a second grand tour triumph.

“It is hugely important,” Herrada said. “It was very difficult for me to get into the breakaway. I felt like when I went over the climb I had to put a lot in there. Six of us went really well and then we were down to five. Then I just gave absolutely everything at the very last but it was a balancing act. Everything, the terrain, the wind was in our favor. I’m just delighted that I won.”

“Tomorrow is going to be a very tough day, I know that. We are going to try to enjoy our victory as much as we can.”

How it unfolded:

Stage 7 of the Vuelta a España was a curious one: a 190 kilometer stage beginning in Camargo, ending in Cistierna and including a first category climb halfway through what was otherwise an otherwise uncomplicated route.

The opening 75 kilometers were mostly flat, after which the road started to gradually rise towards the summit of the first category Puerto de San Glorio (km 125.8). It was 22.4 kilometers in length, averaged 5.5 percent and included one sector a little over halfway up of 11 percent.

The summit was then followed by 64 mainly downhill kilometers, making it possible that some of the splits on the climb could come back together before the finish.

Mads Pedersen started the stage second in the green jersey contest and despite not being a climber, said that he believed it was possible to go for the stage win. Conversely, his rival Sam Bennett all but wrote off his own chances, saying that if Pedersen was able to seize green that Bennett would focus on getting it back next week.

The stage win would hand 30 points to the first past the line, with 20 points available for the first rider in the intermediate sprint at km 168.

Two riders didn’t start, with Andrea Vendrame and Jaakko Hanninen (AG2R Citroën) testing positive for COVID-19.

The attacks came right from the drop of the flag and after six kilometers, a group of six riders got clear. They were former world under-23 champion Samuele Battistella (Astana Qazaqstan), Fred Wright (Bahrain Victorious), Jesus Herrada (Cofidis), Omer Goldstein (Israel Premier Tech), Harry Sweeny (Lotto Soudal) and Jimmy Janssens (Alpecin-Deceuninck), and had a gap of 4:20 after 60 kilometers.

Trek-Segafredo applies the pressure

Pedersen’s Trek-Segafredo team were driving the bunch along to try to limit the gains of the breakaway and keep the intermediate sprint and finish line points up for grabs. They reduced the lead of the break to 3:35 at the base of the day’s climb, 90km after the start, and then began driving the pace on the ascent to try to put Bennett in difficulty.

Goldstein was dropped from the break 8 kilometers from the top of the climb. The other five continued on, with Herrada winning the KOM prime ahead of Wright, Janssens, Sweeny, and Battistella.

Trek’s driving finally saw Bennett distanced, but it was only two kilometers from the top of the climb and the Irishman had the help of Bora-hansgrohe teammates in the chase. He returned to the peloton and this caused a momentary stall in the bunch heading into the final 40km, allowing the break’s lead to increase again to 2:40.

BikeExchange-Jayco and Arkea-Samsic were driving the pace and the advantage was pared back to 2’06 with 30km to go. The leaders reached the intermediate sprint with 22km remaining and there Wright led Sweeny, Battistella, and the other two across the line.

The time gap started to fall more quickly from there and the leaders had exactly one minute with 10km to go. Arkea-Samsic, BikeExchange-Jayco and one rider from Bora-hansgrohe continued to drive things along but the outcome was still uncertain, with the break ramping up its speed in response.

They were still 49 seconds ahead with 5km remaining, sealing the bunch’s fate with regards to a big sprint. The leaders became noticeably more cagey inside the final kilometer, watching each other, then Wright led it out. He seemed to have it but Herrada powered past inside the final 50 meters, claiming an emotional win.

Final kilometer