La Vuelta Ciclista a España

A big stage, with lots of mountains and some really nasty slopes awaited the riders Friday, just before the second weekend of the Spanish Grand Tour, which started from Andorra and took the bunch to the autonomous community of Aragon. There, they had to tackle the first-category climb of Cerler and its irregular gradients, used for the first time in 1987, but not visited since 2007, when the leader’s jersey of La Vuelta still had a golden colour.

A frantic start to the 188km stage meant that a breakaway formed only before the top of Port del Canto. Fourth overall at the start of the day, Louis Vervaeke tried to be part of the main move, but the peloton didn’t agree with this and brought him back. From the twelve-man group that went clear, Juan Ayuso attacked on the last ascent and took the victory at the top of Cerler, where stage seven – which boasted an elevation gain of 4200 meters – concluded after almost five hours.

Midway up the climb, a searing pace at the front of the bunch reduced it to only a dozen or so riders, including T-Rex Quick-Step’s Junior Lecerf. The Czech Tour winner produced a remarkable ride despite the numerous changes of tempo to stay with the depleted red jersey group and eventually conclude with it. Thanks to this effort that came after a hard day of racing, the 22-year-old from Halle made his way into the top 20 on the general classification and at the same time, moved to fourth in the youth jersey standings, ahead of Saturday’s stage to Zaragoza, which should be a quiet one, for the sprinters.

Photo credit: ©Dario Belingheri / Getty Images