Vuelta a Espana – Stage 7

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The first big mountain test on stage 7 of the Vuelta a Espana sees the break stay away whilst Froome loses time

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Vuelta a Espana – Stage 7

Chaves maintains lead after first big mountain test at Vuelta

Two-time stage winner Esteban Chaves has finished sixth on stage seven of the Vuelta a Espana to maintain his ten second lead at the Spanish Grand Tour. The stage was touted as the first general classification test of the 2015 Tour with a 19km category one climb to finish.

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Chaves crossed the line 36 seconds down on Bertjan Lindeman (Team Lotto-Jumbo) who survived from the breakaway to claim the stage. “I’m really happy,” he said. “Today was a final with a 40 or 50 minute climb, really really long, and the team again was fantastic.”

“It’s a big responsibility (to be in the red jersey), it’s important you don’t lose your head and you stay really focused. It’s the first big uphill finish and now it is important to recover.”

Fabio Aru (Astana Team) attacked the general classification group towards the top of the final climb to gain a few extra seconds, whilst Chris Froome (Team Sky) and Tejay Van Garderen (BMC Racing) lost further time off the back.

The top three overall places remain unchanged – Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin) sits ten seconds behind Chaves with Dan Martin (Cannondale-Garmin) 33seconds adrift. “(Aru) attacked, but I think it’s not my responsibility to close all gaps,” the 25-year-old said. “All of the other riders want to win, same to me, and finally Aru (gained) some seconds.“

“He is an important rider, obviously, but I can’t go for all riders because I don’t have amazing amazing legs. It’s important to save energy for the future. There is a lot of important stages coming, and I say again it’s really important to stay really focused and concentrate.”

The Race
It was another fast start but the break took much less time to form than on yesterday’s stage. The group of five was immediately allowed freedom, deemed of little threat to general classification with all riders more than 14minutes down on race leader Chaves.

They rode out to 13minutes advantage with 80km to go and looked certain to contest the stage before Team Movistar and Astana took over the front from a conservative ORICA-GreenEDGE and the advantage started to tumble.

With seven kilometres to go the break looked tired and all of a sudden doomed but Lindeman and Ilia Koshevoy (Team Lampre-Merida) managed to fight and hold on to finish first and second respectively.

Nairo Quintana: “We put some considerable time on Froome, though there’s still much left to race. It could have happened to anyone, even myself, with such intense heat, and more than a physical thing, I think Froome’s loss was caused by that. It was a really difficult day with those temperatures. Anyway, as Aru put some seconds on us, we can say we were hunting and hunted at the same time. We’re still in the mix, not losing much time, and we hope to change a bit our strategy to improve this result, profiting from our two chances to put some time over the rivals. At the moment, pretty much everyone is riding around our team.”

Alejandro Valverde: “I didn’t see Froome neither doing well nor bad, basically because I didn’t see him during the whole stage; we were always riding on the front. It’s good to put some seconds on him, but the Vuelta is still to start, really. The first huge climb is always demanding and the heat we suffered today added an impact to that. Fortunately, we responded well and as well Nairo as myself are on a good place. We still have two chances to win and we will try to take advantage of that in the upcoming stages.”

STAGE 7
1 LINDEMAN Bert Jan TEAM LOTTO NL – JUMBO 05h 10′ 24”
2 KOSHEVOY Ilia LAMPRE – MERIDA @ 00′ 09”
3 ARU Fabio ASTANA PRO TEAM @ 00′ 29”
4 COUSIN Jérome TEAM EUROPCAR @ 00′ 34”
5 MAJKA Rafal TINKOFF – SAXO @ 00′ 36”
6 CHAVES RUBIO Johan Esteban ORICA GreenEDGE @ 00′ 36”
7 VALVERDE BELMONTE Alejandro MOVISTAR TEAM @ 00′ 36”
8 QUINTANA ROJAS Nairo Alexander MOVISTAR TEAM @ 00′ 36”
9 MEINTJES Louis MTN – QHUBEKA @ 00′ 36”
10 ROCHE Nicolas TEAM SKY @ 00′ 36”
11 MARTIN Daniel TEAM CANNONDALE – GARMIN @ 00′ 36”
12 RODRIGUEZ OLIVER Joaquin TEAM KATUSHA @ 00′ 36”
13 ITAPOZZOVIVO Domenico AG2R LA MONDIALE @ 00′ 36”
14 NEDDUMOULIN Tom TEAM GIANT – ALPECIN @ 00′ 36”
15 ESPNIEVE ITURRALDE Mikel TEAM SKY @ 00′ 45”
16 ESPTXURRUKA ANSOLA Amets CAJA RURAL-SEGUROS RGA @ 00′ 51”
17 GBRFROOME Christopher TEAM SKY @ 01′ 03”
18 BELDE CLERCQ Bart LOTTO SOUDAL @ 01′ 03”
19 ESPMORENO FERNANDEZ Daniel TEAM KATUSHA @ 01′ 03”
20 LUXSCHLECK Frank TREK FACTORY RACING @ 01′ 03”
21 ESPSANCHEZ GONZALEZ Samuel BMC RACING TEAM @ 01′ 03”
22 ESPLANDA MEANA Mikel ASTANA PRO TEAM @ 01′ 03”
23 FRAJEANDESBOZ Fabrice TEAM EUROPCAR @ 01′ 09”
24 ITAVISCONTI Giovanni MOVISTAR TEAM @ 01′ 09”
25 ITABRAMBILLA Gianluca ETIXX – QUICK STEP @ 01′ 18”

OVERALL
1 COLCHAVES RUBIO Johan Esteban ORICA GreenEDGE 27h 06′ 13”
2 NEDDUMOULIN Tom TEAM GIANT – ALPECIN @ 00′ 10”
3 IRLMARTIN Daniel TEAM CANNONDALE – GARMIN @ 00′ 33”
4 IRLROCHE Nicolas TEAM SKY @ 00′ 36”
5 ESPVALVERDE BELMONTE Alejandro MOVISTAR TEAM @ 00′ 49”
6 ESPRODRIGUEZ OLIVER Joaquin TEAM KATUSHA @ 00′ 56”
7 COLQUINTANA ROJAS Nairo Alexander MOVISTAR TEAM @ 00′ 57”
8 ITAARU Fabio ASTANA PRO TEAM @ 00′ 57”
9 ESPMORENO FERNANDEZ Daniel TEAM KATUSHA @ 01′ 18”
10 ITAPOZZOVIVO Domenico AG2R LA MONDIALE @ 01′ 19”
11 ESPNIEVE ITURRALDE Mikel TEAM SKY @ 01′ 21”
12 GBRFROOME Christopher TEAM SKY @ 01′ 22”
13 POLMAJKA Rafal TINKOFF – SAXO @ 01′ 29”
14 ESPLANDA MEANA Mikel ASTANA PRO TEAM @ 01′ 39”
15 RSAMEINTJES Louis MTN – QHUBEKA @ 01′ 51”
16 USAVAN GARDEREN Tejay BMC RACING TEAM @ 02′ 05”
17 COLHENAO MONTOYA Sergio Luis TEAM SKY @ 02′ 24”
18 ITABRAMBILLA Gianluca ETIXX – QUICK STEP @ 02′ 25”
19 ESPSANCHEZ GONZALEZ Samuel BMC RACING TEAM @ 02′ 50”
20 PORCARDOSO MARTINS André Fernando S. TEAM CANNONDALE – GARMIN @ 02′ 51”
21 FRASICARD Romain TEAM EUROPCAR @ 02′ 55”
22 ESPNAVARRO GARCIA Daniel COFIDIS, SOLUTIONS CREDITS @ 03′ 01”
23 BELDE CLERCQ Bart LOTTO SOUDAL @ 03′ 10”
24 LUXSCHLECK Frank TREK FACTORY RACING @ 03′ 25”
25 FRAROSSETTO Stéphane COFIDIS, SOLUTIONS CREDITS @ 03′ 54”

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