Valverde strikes atop savagely steep climb to win stage 7 at the Vuelta

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Alejandro Valverde made a successful charge in the final 150 meters to win the seventh stage of the Vuelta, with Miguel Angel Lopez finishing third to regain the overall lead.

The world champion remained strong in the challenging final climb to finish just ahead of second-place Primoz Roglic at the end of the 183-kilometer stage from Onda to Mas de la Costa in eastern Spain. Lopez crossed the line six seconds behind Valverde, followed by Nairo Quintana and Rafal Majka.

It was the 12th stage win in the Vuelta for Valverde, who moved to third place overall, 10 seconds behind second-place Roglic and 16 seconds behind Lopez. Quintana, Valverde’s Movistar teammate, was 27 seconds off the lead in fourth place.

”We kept a good rhythm throughout the stage and in the end we were able to pull off the victory,” Valverde said. ”I was feeling very confident. There is still a long way to go but right now we are strong.”

Lopez will be wearing the leader’s red jersey for the third time in this year’s Vuelta.

”In the end we were able to stay close,” Lopez said. ”We will keep going little by little. There is no reason to worry. There is still a long way to go and it will be very demanding.”

Dylan Teuns entered Friday’s stage in the overall lead but finished nearly 10 minutes behind Valverde, dropping to 18th in the general classification.

Tejay van Garderen abandoned the race a day after being involved in a crash. His Education First teammates Rigoberto Uran and Hugh Carthy had already pulled out after crashing on Thursday.



Vuelta a Espana 2019 – stage 7 results (Onda – Mas de la Costa):

1Alejandro Valverde (Movistar)

4:34:11

2Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma)

,,

3Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana)

+06”

4Nairo Quintana (Movistar)

,,

5Rafal Majka (Bora-hansgrohe)

+42”

6Ion Izagirre (Astana)

+48”

7Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates)

+51”

8Fabio Aru (UAE Team Emirates)

,,

9George Bennett (Jumbo-Visma)

+01’07”

10Oscar Rodriguez (Euskadi-Murias)

+01’20”

11Hermann Pernsteiner (Bahrain-Merida)

+01’25”

12Marc Soler (Movistar)

+01’37”

13Esteban Chaves (Mitchelton-Scott)

,,

14Mikel Nieve (Mitchelton-Scott)

,,

15Wilco Kelderman (Team Sunweb)

+01’48”

16Louis Meintjes (Dimension Data)

+01’58”

17Pierre Latour (AG2R La Mondiale)

+02’03”

18Nicolas Edet (Cofidis)

+02’19”

19Jakob Fuglsang (Astana)

+02’25”

20Kilian Frankiny (Groupama-FDJ)

+03’20”

 

Vuelta a Espana 2019 – general classification after stage 7:

1Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana)

28:19:13

2Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma)

+06”

3Alejandro Valverde (Movistar)

+16”

4Nairo Quintana (Movistar)

+27”

5Rafal Majka (Bora-hansgrohe)

+01’58”

6Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates)

+02’36”

7Esteban Chaves (Mitchelton-Scott)

+02’52”

8George Bennett (Jumbo-Visma)

+03’34”

9Wilco Kelderman (Team Sunweb)

+03’36”

10Fabio Aru (UAE Team Emirates)

,,

11Pierre Latour (AG2R La Mondiale)

+03’55”

12Mikel Nieve (Mitchelton-Scott)

+04’01”

13Oscar Rodriguez (Euskadi-Murias)

+04’55”

14Hermann Pernsteiner (Bahrain-Merida)

+06’08”

15Sergio Higuita (EF Education First)

+06’24”

16Nicolas Edet (Cofidis)

,,

17Ion Izagirre (Astana)

+08’39”

18Dylan Teuns (Bahrian-Merida)

+08’44”

19Robert Gesink (Jumbo-Visma)

+09’05”

20Jakob Fuglsang (Astana)

+09’07”

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