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):
| 1 | Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) | 4:34:11 |
| 2 | Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) | ,, |
| 3 | Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana) | +06” |
| 4 | Nairo Quintana (Movistar) | ,, |
| 5 | Rafal Majka (Bora-hansgrohe) | +42” |
| 6 | Ion Izagirre (Astana) | +48” |
| 7 | Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) | +51” |
| 8 | Fabio Aru (UAE Team Emirates) | ,, |
| 9 | George Bennett (Jumbo-Visma) | +01’07” |
| 10 | Oscar Rodriguez (Euskadi-Murias) | +01’20” |
| 11 | Hermann Pernsteiner (Bahrain-Merida) | +01’25” |
| 12 | Marc Soler (Movistar) | +01’37” |
| 13 | Esteban Chaves (Mitchelton-Scott) | ,, |
| 14 | Mikel Nieve (Mitchelton-Scott) | ,, |
| 15 | Wilco Kelderman (Team Sunweb) | +01’48” |
| 16 | Louis Meintjes (Dimension Data) | +01’58” |
| 17 | Pierre Latour (AG2R La Mondiale) | +02’03” |
| 18 | Nicolas Edet (Cofidis) | +02’19” |
| 19 | Jakob Fuglsang (Astana) | +02’25” |
| 20 | Kilian Frankiny (Groupama-FDJ) | +03’20” |
Vuelta a Espana 2019 – general classification after stage 7:
| 1 | Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana) | 28:19:13 |
| 2 | Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) | +06” |
| 3 | Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) | +16” |
| 4 | Nairo Quintana (Movistar) | +27” |
| 5 | Rafal Majka (Bora-hansgrohe) | +01’58” |
| 6 | Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) | +02’36” |
| 7 | Esteban Chaves (Mitchelton-Scott) | +02’52” |
| 8 | George Bennett (Jumbo-Visma) | +03’34” |
| 9 | Wilco Kelderman (Team Sunweb) | +03’36” |
| 10 | Fabio Aru (UAE Team Emirates) | ,, |
| 11 | Pierre Latour (AG2R La Mondiale) | +03’55” |
| 12 | Mikel Nieve (Mitchelton-Scott) | +04’01” |
| 13 | Oscar Rodriguez (Euskadi-Murias) | +04’55” |
| 14 | Hermann Pernsteiner (Bahrain-Merida) | +06’08” |
| 15 | Sergio Higuita (EF Education First) | +06’24” |
| 16 | Nicolas Edet (Cofidis) | ,, |
| 17 | Ion Izagirre (Astana) | +08’39” |
| 18 | Dylan Teuns (Bahrian-Merida) | +08’44” |
| 19 | Robert Gesink (Jumbo-Visma) | +09’05” |
| 20 | Jakob Fuglsang (Astana) | +09’07” |
