In the spirit of Harald V: Norwegian Uno-X honours late King with a 1-2 finish, Van Aert into green

Andreas Leknessund won the seventh stage of the Vuelta a España. The 27-year-old Norwegian from Uno-X Mobility joined the attack alongside Wout van Aert (Visma | Lease a Bike) right from the start and broke away from a group of five on the final climb. Van Aert had Tobias Halland Johannessen (also Uno-X) holding him back in the chase and had to sprint for the podium spots. Among the favorites, the race remained competitive for a while

On Thursday, it was Tadej Pogacar who struck again, but the Slovenian from UAE Team Emirates-XRG had a much tougher time securing his third stage victory. Enric Mas (Movistar) closed the gap on the red-jersey wearer but couldn’t beat him in the sprint. On Friday, the question is: could Mas pull off the same feat, or is it time for stage victory number four?

It’s certainly possible, but the seventh stage is actually never really that difficult. That might sound strange, given the elevation gain. But only on the final climb are there sections steeper than ten percent. It’s very unpredictable, so it remains to be seen whether Pogacar is up for it. If not, the attackers will smell their chance.

Had Wout van Aert obtained information from UAE? Perhaps. The fact was that the Belgian from Visma | Lease a Bike went all out from the start. Initially, he was joined by Milan Vader (Pinarello-Q36.5) and Andreas Leknessund (Uno-X Mobility), but the battle for the eventual breakaway was far from over.

Over the first three categorised climbs, the riders in the breakaway were actually going flat out, with Van Aert constantly at the front and eventually ending up in a leading group of five. Vader dropped back early on, but Leknessund’s Uno-X team-mate Tobias Halland Johannessen made the break alongside Alexey Lutsenko (NSN) and Eddie Dunbar (Pinarello).

The five worked together superbly, ensuring that a large chasing group of over 20 riders never really got within a minute. The cooperation in that group, however, was not particularly good, as many riders who appeared to have strong legs did not have any team-mates with them. Bahrain Victorious did have two – Jakob Omrzel and Pello Bilbao – so Bilbao took the lead on the third climb of the day.

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The summit of the day’s third climb was 45 kilometres from the finish, which shows just how fast the pace must have been all day. It never slowed down, except in the peloton, that is. There, Pogacar had given the attackers free rein, causing the peloton, led by UAE Emirates-XRG, to see the gap widen to well over 6 minutes.

Good news for Van Aert, who claimed maximum points for the green jersey at the intermediate sprint and then headed for the Puerto de San Rafael with his four fellow escapees. The lead over the chasing group remained well over a minute, which was too much for strong climbers to simply attack. They had to be patient until the final stretch, which also included the Aramón Valdelinares.

For a long time, the situation remained unchanged, but as we began the final climb in the last 9 kilometres, Leknessund broke away. At first, he had only a small gap, but as Van Aert was unable to respond and Lutsenko wasn’t going fast enough, the Norwegian pulled away significantly. Van Aert found his rhythm and, together with Johannessen, continued to chase the leader, but it was Leknessund who emerged victorious.

It was a wonderful tribute to the late King Harald V of Norway, with a one-two finish, Johannessen coming second. Van Aert finished third, whilst among the favourites, Decathlon CMA CGM launched another attack on the final climb. Felix Gall whittled the field down to himself, Pogacar and Enric Mas among the general classification contenders, before Pogacar pulled away to gain a few extra seconds.

1. Andreas Leknessund

2. Tobias Halland Johannsen

3. Wout Van Aert