Vuelta a España Vuelta a España 2021: Stage 7 (Gandia - Balcón de Alicante, 152.0 km)

[Leinster]

Bad stage except for the break away action.

"Apart from the stage, it wasn't a good stage."

Apart from Carthy and Bala being out of the race, I thought it was a good day's action. Change-ups in GC and the KOM standings, attacks happening all day. What's not to like?

 

[Netserk]

From the peloton today:

 

[yaco]

A well deserved victory by Storer who was by the far the strongest rider today.

 

[movingtarget]

Well taken win by Storer. Roglic looked comfortable. Surprised they let Valverde get back on his bike. He looked a bit unsteady on his feet when the doctor was talking to him.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

You know you've been spoiled as a cycling-fan, when you're - very - slightly disappointed that your rather small nation doesn't get two stage wins in a row!

Rnk	Rider	Age	Team	UCI	Pnt	Time
1	STORER Michael	24	Team DSM	100	80	4:10:13
2	VERONA Carlos	28	Movistar Team	40	50	0:21
3	SIVAKOV Pavel	24	INEOS Grenadiers	20	35	0:59
4	KUSS Sepp	26	Team Jumbo-Visma	12	25	1:16
5	HAIG Jack	27	Bahrain - Victorious	4	18	1:24
6	BARDET Romain	30	Team DSM		15	1:32
7	GROßSCHARTNER Felix	27	BORA - hansgrohe		12	,,
8	KRON Andreas	23	Lotto Soudal		10	1:37
9	CRAS Steff	25	Lotto Soudal		8	2:17
10	POLANC Jan	29	UAE-Team Emirates		6	2:29

And look at all the youngsters!

Three youngsters in the top 10 is not all that impressive really
Lotto getting two riders in there seems like a greater feat.

 

[Tricycle Rider]

I guess we should enjoy the heli view while the rest of the peloton finishes up, it's another flat stage tomorrow.

 

[RedheadDane]

DISCLAIMER! Crazy theory coming up:

What if Yates pulled the favourite-group in order to prevent Roglic from giving the jersey away, forcing Jumbo to work? Of course it could backfire spectacularily, but would be a sneaky tactic: "Oh... you don't have a very strong team, and would like to give the jersey away, in order to not have to work? Too bad! "

---

Three youngsters in the top 10 is not all that impressive really
Lotto getting two riders in there seems like a greater feat.

So, in your mind 25 is old?

 

[ice&fire]

So, in your mind 25 is old?

Valverde out of the race lowers the bar

 

[Libertine Seguros]

DISCLAIMER! Crazy theory coming up:

What if Yates pulled the favourite-group in order to prevent Roglic from giving the jersey away, forcing Jumbo to work? Of course it could backfire spectacularily, but would be a sneaky tactic: "Oh... you don't have a very strong team, and would like to give the jersey away, in order to not have to work? Too bad! "

It's not that crazy a theory, it's been seen a few times. 2008 Vuelta springs to mind, when Caisse d'Epargne wanted to keep Levi Leipheimer in gold in the hope that it might clip Contador's wings for a bit and prevent him attacking with his teammate leading, so chased to hold a breakaway that was being allowed to go too close for them to get the jersey and keep it on Levi's shoulders.

 

[Rackham]

DISCLAIMER! Crazy theory coming up:

What if Yates pulled the favourite-group in order to prevent Roglic from giving the jersey away, forcing Jumbo to work? Of course it could backfire spectacularily, but would be a sneaky tactic: "Oh... you don't have a very strong team, and would like to give the jersey away, in order to not have to work? Too bad! "

---



So, in your mind 25 is old?

If Yates had gone slower, one of the other guys (probably Lopez) would have attacked & would have set everything off (namely Roglic would have followed). In the end they would have climbed just as fast or perhaps even faster if they'd gone all out attacking.

So I don't think that was the Ineos plan (i.e. riding to keep Roglic in red).

 

[Koronin]

Hope Mas finishes on the podium, but I'm done.

 

[Sciatic]

Hope Mas finishes on the podium, but I'm done.

So sorry to see that today

 

[groogster]

Kind off an anti climax final for this stage. Untill now this years Vuelta below my expectations.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Hope Mas finishes on the podium, but I'm done.

Still finding it hard to warm to Supermán?

 

[perico]

I thought MAL clearly pushed through to the front of the group on the final climb to try push the pace before Yates took back over?

I swear I remember this because I was distinctly shocked that Mas was trying something before twigging that it was MAL

That was Mas.

Edit: López did try on the initial acceleration but then dropped back. I missed that as I was watching on my phone.

 

[Koronin]

Still finding it hard to warm to Supermán?

I don't hate him, but I don't like him either.

As I said I hope Mas gets on the podium, otherwise I don't care about anything else with the Vuelta. I went to deleted the timer for it on my DVR so I don't have to deal with stopping it from recording anymore stages.

 

[Wvv]

Couldn't watch today. Feel very sorry for Valverde, if this is his adios to the Vuelta.

 

[Fantastico]

That was Mas.

No, that was clearly Lopez. Just rewatched it in Eurosportplayer.

Edit: Not sure if/how you can insert a screenshot without a link.

 

[perico]

No, that was clearly Lopez. Just rewatched it in Eurosportplayer.

At which part? Mas was glued to Roglic’s wheel the entire climb and Lopez was on the back for the last KM.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

So, in your mind 25 is old?

25 is not old, but IMHO there are riders who are neither youngsters nor old. Elissonde is not a youngster, but he isn't old/very old if you look at other riders in the pro peloton. Kuss is nearly 27, so he's not that young anymore compared to Kron, for instance, but he's definitely not old either.

 

[Fantastico]

At which part? Mas was glued to Roglic’s wheel the entire climb and Lopez was on the back for the last KM.

Just after Verona finished, when they switched back to the GC group, Lopez had a small gap which was closed by Yates. Then Lopez rode at the front for a few hundred metres before Yates took over again.

That was before the final kilometer.

 

[perico]

At which part? Mas was glued to Roglic’s wheel the entire climb and Lopez was on the back for the last KM.

OK just rewatched. It looked more like Lopez was dictating the pace.

 

[RedheadDane]

25 is not old, but IMHO there are riders who are neither youngsters nor old. Elissonde is not a youngster, but he isn't old/very old if you look at other riders in the pro peloton. Kuss is nearly 27, so he's not that young anymore compared to Kron, for instance, but he's definitely not old either.

Let me have my very simple system: Younger than me - up until the day I turn 35, at which point 35 will be the split-age - are young. Older than me are old!

 

[Red Rick]

Sepp Kuss: "[About the climb] I liked it, it's steep."

The chasing group got the complete Sepp Kuss experience. He was there, nobody rode, someone else won.

 

[Krzysztof_O]

Except for a brief spark with over 40 km to go (unfortunate the Grandpa is out of the race) it was another anticlimatic mountains stage in terms of the GC. Nobody seems able to successfully attack Primoz, who doesn't attack as well. Will it remain like that until the end? Hopefully not.