La Vuelta 2023 – Stage 07 [LAST 10 KM]

September 1, 2023

La Vuelta 2023 🇪🇸 – Stage 7 – Utiel – Oliva : 200,8 km

As the final Grand Tour of the year, the Vuelta a España is seen by many as a last-chance saloon for those riders who have failed to hit their seasonal objectives. In reality, the race is much more than that, often surpassing the other two three-week races in terms of action and edge-of-your-seat entertainment. This is a race with the steepest summit finishes in professional cycling, the anything-can-happen transitional stages, the unlikeliest breakaway victories and the most fiercely fought GC battles seen anywhere on the racing calendar. Aside from a summit finish atop the Col du Tourmalet in France, this year’s route is very typical of La Vuelta, with mountainous stages in the Spanish Pyrenees and a return to the infamous Altu de l’Angliru. All eyes will be on Evenepoel as he attempts to retain his title and win a second Grand Tour, but it’s not going to be an easy ride for the Belgian prodigy. With the likes of Tour de France champion Jonas Vingegaard, Primož Roglič, Enric Mas and Geraint Thomas also set to start, we’re in for an amazing spectacle between the best riders on the planet.

Geoffrey Soupe (TotalEnergies) surprised the top sprinters and won stage 7 of the Vuelta a España on Friday.

A massive bunch of riders swarmed to the line, Orluis Aular (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) took second ahead of Trek-Lidl’s Edward Theuns. Sprint leader Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck) finished fifth, on the wheel of Sebastian Molano (UAE Team Emirates).

Intermarché-Circus-Wanty led the peloton on the final 1.7km across a narrow stretch of road that twisted through Oliva. On the last corner with 200m to go, Soupe accelerated and put distance into his effort, but the sprint teams could not close the 35-year-old veteran down. In his 13-year career, he has only two pro wins before today, both stages at the 2.1-ranked La Tropicale Amissa Bongo in Gabon.

“To win a sprint in a Grand Tour is always special and also a surprise. I’ve always wanted to taste victory in a Grand Tour. It’s an unbelievable, indescribable moment for me,” Soupe said after using a bike throw to hold off the other sprinters.

“I saw that I could launch my sprint from a ways to go after the last corner and I was surprised when nobody from behind me came past.

“It’s beautiful for me and the team because normally I didn’t have the Vuelta [on my calendar] this year but Alexis Vuillermoz crashed in the Tour de l’Ain and the team decided to take me to the Vuelta. I didn’t think it was possible to win a stage because it’s really fast in the sprints. Today it was really nervous in the final, we had a lot of roundabouts and a lot of wind in the final.”

The general classification remained intact from the shakeup on Thursday, Lenny Martinez (Groupama-FDJ) in the overall lead by 8 seconds over stage 6 winner Sepp Kuss (Jumbo-Visma). Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates) was third at 51 seconds back.

Kuss managed to recover from a crash with close to 5km to race and finish safely in the bunch sprint. However, Thymen Arensman (Ineos Grenadiers) did not finish the race and was forced to abandon after his hard fall in the late crash.

As many as 15 riders were part of the crash, which seemed to be a touch of wheels on the far right side of the peloton between Alpecin-Deceuninck teammates Jimmy Janssens and Groves, the points leader remaining upright. Alpecin’s Edward Planckaert and Robbe Ghys went down along with Alberto Dainese (Team dsm-Firmenich), Michael Storer (Groupama-FDJ), Amanuel Ghebreigzabhier (Lidl-Trek) and Jonathan Castroviejo with Ineos teammate Arensman.

HOW IT UNFOLDED
After mass efforts and a GC shakeup on Thursday’s mountain stage to Observatorio Astrofísico de Javalambre, stage 7 provided a flat 201km for the sprinters. A series of small climbs stung the legs in the opening 28km outside Utiel, but it was largely downhill to Valencia, and then flat across the final 80km along the coastline to Oliva.

José Herrada (Cofidis) and Ander Okamika (Burgos-BH) jumped from the peloton as the flag dropped to begin proceedings, and there was no reaction from behind. For Herrada, his motivation was perhaps knowing this Vuelta would be his final Grand Tour, and race, the 37-year-old having announced retirement from the pro peloton at the conclusion of the race. The gap opened to 1:17 in the first 6km and then stretched beyond 2:30 as the first 40km rolled by.

With one quarter of the race completed and the margin holding steady, Geraint Thomas and Kim Heiduk of Ineos Grenadiers were involved in a crash. As the riders remounted and worked back to the peloton.

What had been a metronome of pedalling for Herrada and Okamika suddenly stopped when the Burgos rider suffered a flat tyre with just under 113km to go. Would Herrada wait? The long downhill stretch of road to Torrent must have looked unappealing for a solo strike, so after a short stretch of soft pedalling on a highway, Okamika was back to reboot the tandem adventure. The duo were back in action, 1:40 away from the peloton.

Meanwhile, while the breakaway drove on, Thomas stopped to receive brief medical treatment, and Jonathan Castroviejo paced him back through the team cars.

As the duo cruised at 39 kph toward Valencia, 95km remained and the gap dropped to 1:05. With the turn in direction to the south along the Mediterranean bringing the breakaway to wide palm-tree-lined avenues near a playground of beaches, there was no time for sightseeing. Passing Playa de Pinedo and 67km to go, Herrada was the first of the leaders to get swooped back into the peloton, Okamika resisting with an extra effort.

The Basque rider from Burgos continued in the lead alone, the Parc Natural de Albufeira on his right and the peloton behind at 35 seconds. He opened a gap of a minute with 60km to go.

The peloton did not demonstrate urgency, as yet, with Bahrain Victorious setting a moderate pace at the front of the peloton, red jersey Lenny Martinez and all the classification jerseys in the bunch. Also near the front of the peloton were Jumbo-Visma and Groupama-FDJ.

As the race closed on the intermediate sprint in Cullera, Alpecin-Deceuninck took up the charge at the front of the peloton. Okamika’s time began to drop, down to 44 seconds with 46km to race. Just 2km later, the advantage was cut in half and another 3km later the breakaway was no more.

With 34km to go on a very slight uphill gradient in Cullera, the familiar green jersey of the points classification leader Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck) led a small group of riders across the line for 20 points and 6 bonus seconds. The 17 points and 4 seconds for second place went to Marijn van den Berg (EF Education-EasyPost), with a surprising third place going to Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma), who scooped up a pair of all-important bonus seconds. That attentive burst of speed put the Dane within three seconds of Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) in the GC standings.

Scorching temperatures and large doses of roundabouts stayed at bay across the seaside approach to Oliva, and a headwind kept riders packed together. Team dsm-firmenich, Lotto Dstny, Alpecin-Deceuninck and Jumbo-Visma massed at the front of the peloton while Soudal-QuickStep kept Evenepoel tucked in the peloton, with 25km to go the frenzy to the finish yet to develop.

With 14km to go, the riders turned slightly away from the coastline at Playa de Gandia and Ineos Grenadiers and Soudal-QuickStep had worked their way to the front of the peloton.

A crash of a half dozen riders caused a disruption with under 11km to go, Sepp Kuss (Jumbo-Visma) caught in the pile, but backpedalling quickly. Pierre Latour (TotalEnergies) went down and was a bit slower to get up.

A 90-degree change in direction in Bellreguard back to the south aligned the sprint teams for the final 6.5km and a bunch finish.

Another high-speed pileup near the front of the peloton took down as many as 15 riders with 5.1km to go. Arensman remained on the pavement as medical staff were called to the scene. Groves lost several of his Alpecin-Deceuninck leadout teammates for the upcoming sprint finish.

With 3km to go, riders spread across the wide road and swooped around a wide roundabout to set up the big names, but Soupe surprised the entire field, and even himself, with a late acceleration in the final 400 metres and carried it to the line for the victory.

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