The Norwegian Andreas Leknessund launched a successful solo attack on the final climb to the summit finish of Aramón Valdelinares to win stage seven of the Vuelta a España, ahead of his Uno-X Mobility teammate and compatriot Tobias Johannessen on a day when their country mourned the death of King Harald. Leknessund made his move from a five-rider breakaway 7.5km from the finish at the end of the 149.8km ride from Vall d’Alba, and pulled away to win his first Grand Tour stage on his Vuelta debut. Tadej Pogacar, winner of three stages already, was happy to sit back in the peloton before pulling away from his general classification rivals approaching the summit to gain more seconds.
The Slovene now leads Spaniard Enric Mas by 3min 50sec. Van Aert and Leknessund got away early and were joined by another three riders, Johannessen, Eddie Dunbar (Pinarello Q36.5) and Alexey Lutsenko (NSN) coming to the top of the first of five climbs. The leaders worked together, building a substantial gap and at the foot of the final climb the five were one minute ahead of a chasing group of 13 riders with the peloton out of the running with less than 10km to the finish.
Leknessund was the first to try to get away, and when nobody followed he was able to claim his stage win at last, having finished runner-up three times at this year’s Giro d’Italia. I think we played it perfectly. Stage eight on Saturday is a flat 176.4km route from Pucol to Xeraco.
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