Long time leadout man Geoffrey Soupe of the Total Energies team takes an unexpected sprint win today in Stage 7 of the 2023 Vuelta a Espana. Lenny Martinez finishes safely in a dangerous finale to hold onto La Roja for one more day.
After a summit finish at Javalambre, Stage 7 of the 2023 Vuelta a Espana offered a new opportunity for the sprinters with 200.8km from Utiel to Oliva. Lenny Martinez (Groupama-FDJ) makes history as the youngest rider ever to wear La Roja at 20 years old after yesterday’s efforts on the slopes of Pico del Buitre. The French wonderkid leads the GC 8’’ ahead of Sepp Kuss (Jumbo-Visma) and 51’’ ahead of Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates). Martinez also leads the best young rider standings, 2’47’’ ahead of Remco Evenepoel.
Martinez was naturally impressed by his first moments as a Grand Tour leader: “It feels strange. Everyone’s cheering me on, everyone’s shouting my name, it feels a bit strange to be the leader. I’m fine now. Yesterday, there were press conferences, all the ceremonies, it was a bit long, I didn’t really know how it was going but now it’s fine. [Having an easier stage today] feels good after the hard stage we had yesterday in the breakaway, to recover for the next two days.”
Thanks to his two stage wins, Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck) leads the points standings with 122 points, 60 more than Andrea Vendrame (AG2R Citroën). Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates) follows with 52 points.
The day started with an attack in the first kilometer from José Herrada (Cofidis) and Ander Okamika (Burgos-BH). Their lead went up to 2’35” at km 12 and came back down to a comfortable 2’28”.
The leader’s gap held solid around the 2 minute mark for a good bit of the stage. Okamika had a puncture near the 110km mark and the gap briefly dropped to 1’10”, but it came back up to 1’34” with 100km to go.
As the stage wore on, the peloton ate into the leader’s advantage. It was as low as 20 seconds, then Herrada got caught with 72km to go. Okamika powered on and pushed his lead back up to 58 seconds.
After 4 hours at the front, Okamika was caught with 41km to go.
The peloton was now focused on the intermediate sprint at km34 before positioning themselves for the finish. It was all flat from here on out with winds off of the Mediterranean coast all the way to the line.
In a likely indication of how the finish might go today, Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck) took the intermediate sprint, adding to his grasp on the points jersey. Marijn van den Berg (EF Education-EasyPost), Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma), Finn Fisher-Black (UAE Team Emirates), and Edward Planckaert (Alpecin-Deceuninck) took the remaining scraps.
28km to go and the bunch is riding straight into a 25km/h headwind. Riders from DSM-Firmenich, Lotto Dstny, Alpecin-Deceuninck, Jumbo-Visma and Bahrain Victorious were driving the bunch.
With 16km remaining, it’s Ineos Grenadiers amping up the pace to a little over 40km/h.
Just after the 11km mark, a crash near the front takes down a few riders. Sep Kuss got caught up in the mess, but he got back on his bike quickly and rejoined the peloton soon after. Pierre Latour seems to have gotten the worst of it and was still laying on the road.
6km to go and the speed is up above 40km/h! And there’s another crash. Romain Bardet down in this one and Thymen Arensman (Ineos Grenadiers) as well. Kaden Groves lost a couple of leadoff men in this one as well.
The Alpecin-Deceuninck is at the head of the peloton with Groves sitting at fourth wheel. Intermarché-Circus-Wanty is pushing as well.
There was a dangerous corner inside of the final kilometer. They made it through safely, setting up for the bunch sprint.
Groves was not even a factor today. It came down to a sprint between Geoffrey Soupe and O.A. Aular Sanabria, with Soupe winning by a wheel.
2023 Vuelta a Espana Stage 7 Brief Results
- Geoffrey Soupe (Total Energies)
- Orluis Aular (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA)
- Edward Theuns (Lidl Trek)
- Sebastian Molano (UAE Team Emirates)
- Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck)
General Classification After Stage 7:
- Lenny Martinez (Groupama-FDJ) @26h 37′ 04″
- Sepp Kuss (Jumbo-Visma), +8”
- Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates), +51”
- Wout Poels (Bahrain Victorious), +1’41”
- Steff Cras (Total Energies), +1’48”
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