Wout van Aert doubles up at 2024 Vuelta a Espana after chaotic stage 7 sees GC time gaps

On another chaotic day at the 2024 Vuelta a Espana, we've ended up with an expected winner in Wout van Aert. How we got there was completely unexpected however with GC gaps and surprising names in trouble.

After a really brutal day yesterday, how stage 7 would end up wasn't seen as a complete guarantee to be sprint. When just the one rider (Xabier Isasa of Euskaltel - Euskadi) went up the road in the breakaway however, any thoughts of the sprinters being denied were all but over.

With the peloton open to giving the lone leader a large advantage, the pace was somewhat relaxed throughout the day. Once things started to get turned up behind though, the timegap dropped drastically. Thankfully for Isasa, he lasted until the intermediate sprint, picking up maximum points, but just a few minutes later the Spaniard was caught.

After the one man break was ended, Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe took to the front of the bunch and really upped the pace, testing the legs of Red Jersey Ben O'Connor after his heroics yesterday. Whilst the Australian was calm and in control, a number of big names, including sprinter Pavel Bittner and Astana Qazaqstan Team's GC hope Lorenzo Fortunato dropping away. With just over 2km to go on the Alto del 14%, Primoz Roglic himself came to the front of the peloton with Thymen Arensman and Cian Uijtdebroeks put into trouble as a result. Bonus seconds were on offer at the top of the climb, with those going to Roglic, Sepp Kuss and Richard Carapaz.

There was still 25km to go on the stage however and the race was in absolute bits. Kaden Groves wasn't too far away but as he summitted the climb, the Australian clipped the wheel of Nairo Quintana and hit the deck hard. Whilst he was able to regroup and remount, his stage win hopes looked over.

At the front meanwhile, Marc Soler set off on a flyer on the descent and as the rest of the group looked at each other, the Spaniard quickly built up an advantage. With the likes of Wout van Aert and Sepp Kuss attempting attacks behind Soler, the chase group was beginning to splinter but with 3.6km to go Kuss had pulled Soler back.

Next man to attack was David Gaudu. After the Frenchman was quickly caught, it was the teammate of Soler, Pavel Sivakov's turn. Into the final kilometre, Sivakov was clear as well, but with just a few hundred metres to go he too was caught. In the fight for the line, Wout van Aert powered to the win ahead of Mathias Vacek.