After seven stages of this year’s Tour de France, 3:43 separated the top 10 overall; there were 54 seconds between first and second, and Tadej Pogačar, the eventual winner, was leading already.
After seven stages of this year’s Vuelta a España, there might be 2:58 between Torstein Træen (Bahrain Victorious) in first and Felix Gall (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) in 10th, but between the riders thought to be favourites for general classification, there is just 30 seconds.
It is vanishingly simple, really, although not much succour for the fan screaming at the TV hoping for something to happen already – this race is very hard. There have been three stages with over 3,000m of climbing, but there are eight more to come, and six summit finishes.
“I saw that they didn’t really want to go for a hard finish.” Almeida said post-stage. “I asked Marc to pull a bit to try, but I thought the climb would be harder to be honest. But it is what it is, I tried. Maybe there was an opportunity for somebody, but they also didn’t want to cooperate in the end. But yeah, one less day.
“I’ve been feeling better every day, so I think it’s a good sign. I’m looking forward to the next hard ones.”
“Jonas didn’t really have to [attack], so I get it, it is what it is, but I think he doesn’t really pull a lot of the time,” the Portuguese rider joked, pointedly.
In the end, Træen retained the red jersey, comfortably. While he is not thought as a threat to the overall across three weeks, the longer the stalemate goes on, the more he’ll warm to his role as race leader. There are a lot of hard stages to come, however, starting with Sunday’s category-one summit finish. It never ends at this Vuelta.
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