UAE Team Emirates-XRG tripled up at the Vuelta a España on stage 7 as Juan Ayuso came back from an 11-minute time loss to win solo from the breakaway in Cerler.
The Spaniard dropped out of the GC race after a challenging final climb in Andorra on Thursday, but he jumped clear of a 13-man breakaway group on the closing climb of the 188km stage to claim his seventh victory of 2025.
Ayuso’s win counts as UAE’s 76th of the season and their third in as many days following triumphs in the stage 5 team time trial and on stage 6 by mountain classification leader Jay Vine.
“It’s super nice already. The team time trial was very special because it’s a victory from everyone and in equal parts. And Jay did an amazing stage yesterday, winning in front of his wife and his child. So that was super special. And today, me.
“We don’t have a sprinter, so tomorrow, I think we won’t win, but we hope we can carry on like this.”
Marco Frigo (Israel-Premier Tech) took second place, having earlier matched Ayuso’s first acceleration. He couldn’t stay with the next one, however, and ended his day best of the rest at 1:15 down. García Pierna (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) rounded out the stage podium at 1:21 down, having raced with Frigo for much of the final climb.
Back in the peloton, there was no real GC movement as all the big names crossed the line together, despite an earlier brief attempt by João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) to go clear.
In the end, the top favourites and red jersey Torstein Træen (Bahrain Victorious) finished together at 2:35 down, though Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) did nip off the front to take five seconds with a late attack.
The general classification is shuffled somewhat following stage 7, with Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) moving to second overall at 2:33 down on Træen. Almeida is up to third place at 2:41 down.
How it unfolded
The seventh stage of the Vuelta a España saw the…
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