Yates dropped his sole remaining riding companion, David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ), on the first of two ascents of the fearsome Alto de Hazallanas (7.1km@9.6%, with ramps of up to 20%), with 68.2km left to ride in the 178.5km course from Motril to Grenada. He was allowed to pursue his solo ride by the peloton and the leading GC riders, so that his lead over what remained of the bunch had ballooned to 6:45 when the peloton reached the final ascent.
At the end his margin of victory over O’Connor and the other GC contenders had shrunk to 3:45, but that did not spoil his celebration of only his second Grand Tour stage victory, which he said was the hardest race of his career.
“I never suffered like this before,” he told Eurosport. “It was so hot out there. From the last climb I was cramping and I didn’t know if I could go. I’ve had a lot of bad luck in Grand Tours over the years and I really didn’t know if I could make it, but I’m just so happy I could finally win another Grand Tour stage.”
The stage featured some 4,500m of altitude gained and temperatures of about 36°C (97°F). Most of the first week of this Vuelta has been run in extreme heat, with temperatures reaching 40°C (104°F).
At the start of the stage, Yates had been far down in the GC rankings, sitting 27th, 9:27 behind the surprise race leader, Ben O’Connor (AG2R Decathlon La Mondiale), but after the stage he had risen to seventh, only 5:30 down. But he said that improving his GC standing was not his motivation. “It was all about the stage. I was just going full gas.”
Yates was allowed to have the race mostly his own way because he was not considered a GC threat. As O’Connor put it, “We let him in the break today [because] he wasn’t someone we had on our absolute-must on the radar. Credit to him.”
O’Connor now leads the red jersey standings by 3:53 over former red jersey leader Primož Roglič (Red Bull–BORA–Hansgrohe), with Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) – who went on a long solo ride of his own – in third, at 4:32. The big loser of Sunday’s stage was defending Vuelta champion Sepp Kuss (Visma–Lease a Bike), who was dropped early on the second ascent of the Hazallanas and finished 5:35 behind Yates. He now trails O’Connor by 8:16.
Roglič, the pre-race favorite, encountered his first moments of weakness in this Vuelta on stage 9 as he neither attacked O’Connor nor was able to react to the attack of Enric Mas (Movistar) on the second Hazallanas ascent. “I clearly didn’t have the legs,” the three-time Vuelta champion said.
O’Connor took over the race leader’s red jersey on stage 6, when he and Gijs Leemreize (Team dsm-firmenich PostNL) rode away from what remained of a large breakaway group with about 65km left to ride in the 185.5km course from Jerez de la Frontera to Yunquera. O’Connor then dropped Leemreize on the ascent to the Puerto Martinez (3.5km @5.9%), the penultimate of four categorized climbs on the stage, while behind him the team of the GC contenders, including Roglič’s Red Bull squad, inexplicably did not mount a chase.
That turned out to be a huge error as he was on a very good day and increased his lead over his GC rivals with every pedal stroke. In the end, he had taken an astonishing 6:31 on the other GC riders, and led Roglič by 4:51, Almeida by 4:59 and Kuss by 6:05.
“When the race opened up again, I kind of just went for it,” said the 28-year-old Australian, who has now won a stage in each of the three Grand Tours. “I felt today was just a day to seize my opportunity, and I just laid it all out there. I felt like I could win this stage from the start. It’s pretty special when you can just go out and crush it like that. I absolutely loved every moment.”
Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe were not pleased. “Things got out of hand,” team manager Patxi Vila told Cyclingnews. “Things didn’t play out as we wanted.” But Roglič didn’t seem to mind. “We can’t control everything and, as I said, we planned to let a breakaway go,” he said. “We’ll see at the end of the Vuelta.”
Stage 7, 180.5km from Archidona to Cordoba, was the scene of two incidents that could have a significant impact on the races for both the GC and the green jersey and both occurred on the same spot, the summit of the only climb on the parcours, of the aptly named Alto del 14% (7.4km@5.6%, with a ramp of – you guessed it – 14%).
Roglič began his quest to retake the red jersey on stage 7, when he gained 5 seconds on the race leader for being the first to crest the summit of the only climb on the parcours, of the aptly named Alto del 14% (7.4km@5.6%), with a ramp of – you guessed it – 14%), with O’Connor picking up no bonus seconds.
He continued his mission on stage 8, where everything happened on the short but steep final climb to a summit finish on the Sierra de Cazorla (4.8km@7.1%, with ramps of up to 20% and a final km that averaged 13.1%). There were crashes on that climb in which his teammate Aleksandr Vlasov, Kuss and Almeida were caught up, though without much damage. And this was the scene of Roglič’s series of attacks, especially on the final ramp, that eventually left all of his rivals down the mountain – except the resurgent Mas. But the Spaniard was no match for the three-time Vuelta champion in the final sprint, who registered his second stage victory of this Vuelta.
As a result, Roglič took back 55 seconds on O’Connor, including the bonus for winning the stage, and Mas climbed onto the provisional podium, 4:31 behind the race leader and less than a minute adrift of Roglič. Almeida finished the stage 4:53 behind the winner to drop out of GC contention. UAE Team Emirates announced the following day that he had tested positive for coronavirus and would leave the race. On Sunday, Yates provided an exciting reaction for his team.
