Utiel – Oliva – 189 Km
1 SOUPE Geoffrey FRA TOTALENERGIES 04:56:29
2 AULAR SANABRIA Orluis Alberto VEN CAJA RURAL-SEGUROS RGA 00:00
3 THEUNS Edward BEL LIDL-TREK 00:00
4 MOLANO Juan Sebastian COL UAE TEAM EMIRATES 00:00
5 GROVES Kaden AUS ALPECIN-DECEUNINCK 00:00
6 VAN DEN BERG Marijn NED EF EDUCATION – EASYPOST 00:00
7 GONZALEZ LOPEZ David ESP CAJA RURAL-SEGUROS RGA 00:00
8 PAGE Hugo FRA INTERMARCHÉ – CIRCUS – WANTY 00:00
9 GANNA Filippo ITA INEOS GRENADIERS 00:00
10 GOVEKAR Matevž SLO BAHRAIN VICTORIOUS 00:00
11 CIMOLAI Davide ITA COFIDIS 00:00
12 SOBRERO Matteo ITA TEAM JAYCO ALULA 00:00
13 VENDRAME Andrea ITA AG2R CITROEN TEAM 00:00
14 GARCIA CORTINA Ivan ESP MOVISTAR TEAM 00:00
15 MENTEN Milan BEL LOTTO DSTNY 00:00
Gesamt:
1 MARTINEZ Lenny FRA GROUPAMA – FDJ 26:37:04
2 KUSS Sepp USA JUMBO-VISMA 00:08
3 SOLER Marc ESP UAE TEAM EMIRATES 00:51
4 POELS Wout NED BAHRAIN VICTORIOUS 01:41
5 CRAS Steff BEL TOTALENERGIES 01:48
6 LANDA Mikel ESP BAHRAIN VICTORIOUS 01:58
7 DE LA CRUZ David ESP ASTANA QAZAQSTAN TEAM 02:23
8 CEPEDA Jefferson ECU CAJA RURAL-SEGUROS RGA 02:30
9 EVENEPOEL Remco BEL SOUDAL QUICK-STEP 02:47
10 VINGEGAARD Jonas DEN JUMBO-VISMA 02:50
11 MAS Enric ESP MOVISTAR TEAM 02:50
12 ROGLIČ Primož SLO JUMBO-VISMA 02:58
13 CARTHY Hugh John GBR EF EDUCATION – EASYPOST 03:03
14 AYUSO Juan ESP UAE TEAM EMIRATES 03:06
15 UIJTDEBROEKS Cian BEL BORA – HANSGROHE 03:08
16 GONCALVES ALMEIDA Joao POR UAE TEAM EMIRATES 03:17
17 RUBIO REYES Einer Augusto COL MOVISTAR TEAM 03:22
18 VLASOV Aleksandr BORA – HANSGROHE 03:36
19 LOPEZ PEREZ Juan Pedro ESP LIDL-TREK 03:38
20 BUITRAGO SANCHEZ Santiago COL BAHRAIN VICTORIOUS 03:58
21 RODRIGUEZ MARTIN Cristian ESP TEAM ARKEA – SAMSIC 04:01
22 ROCHAS Remy FRA COFIDIS 04:39
23 THOMAS Geraint GBR INEOS GRENADIERS 05:21
24 VALTER Attila HUN JUMBO-VISMA 06:24
25 CARUSO Damiano ITA BAHRAIN VICTORIOUS 09:39
26 BUCHMANN Emanuel GER BORA – HANSGROHE 11:36
Soupe brings more French delights
Geoffrey Soupe (Total Energies) couldn’t believe it himself, but the Frenchman was the fastest in Oliva, where he won stage 7 of La Vuelta 23 ahead of Orluis Aular (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) and Edward Theuns (Lidl-Trek). At 35 years od, he takes his fifth professional win, by far the most prestigious! Making history as the youngest rider to ever lead a Grand Tour, Lenny Martinez (Groupama-FDJ) retained La Roja and will defend it on Saturday on the infamous slopes up Xorret de Cati.
As La Vuelta 23 returns to the valley after an exhilarating finish at the Observatorio Astrofisico de Javalambre, two riders rapidly set off to make the break of the day: José Herrada (Cofidis), participating in his ninth and last La Vuelta, and Ander Okamika (Burgos-BH), who already escaped on day 4.
Alpecin-Deceuninck control, Thomas goes down
Their lead is up to 2’35’’ at km 12 but Alpecin-Deceuninck already control the gap as they want to set a third winning sprint for Kaden Groves, already a winner in Tarragona (stage 4) and Burriana (stage 5). The gap stabilises at around 2 minutes.
Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) crashes 60 kilometres into the stage. The Welsh star appears to be in pain but he resumes racing.
Okamika pushes on
Okamika punctures with 110 kilometres to go. His breakaway companion Herrada waits for him and the peloton move closer: 1’35’’ into the last 100 kilometres.
The gap drops down under 20 seconds as they ride through Valencia. Herrada is caught with 67km to go but Okamika keeps on pushing. His lead gets back up to 1’15’’, before he gets caught with 41km to go.
Vingegaard and Soupe sprint
Groves dominates the intermediate sprint (34km to go) to increase his lead in the points standings. Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) seizes the opportunity to take 2 bonus seconds.
It’s a tortuous finale towards Oliva. Geoffrey Soupe (Total Energies) navigates the tricky last kilometre to power to victory ahead of Orluis Aular (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) and Edward Theuns (Lidl-Trek).