Vuelta a Espana stage 7 Live - Will a breakaway prevail?

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The 1st Category Puerto de San Glorio at 100km is ripe for breakaway potential, and could shed the major sprinters

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Hello and welcome to Cyclingnews' live coverage of stage 7 of the Vuelta a España. We're about to get going for today's 190km race. 

Today's neutral zone has just started. After 8.8km of roll out, the real start is expected to take place at around 12:30 p.m. CEST. 

While we're waiting for today's stage to start, check out our daily preview of the today's stage of the Vuelta a Espana. We've been racing for a week already, and already the red jersey has changed six times. Remco Evenepoel (QST) starts with La Roja today, 21 seconds over yesterday's leader, Rudy Molard (GFC).

So we have 176 starters in today's peloton. Unfortunately we have a couple more non-starters because of Covid-19 - Andrea Vendrame and Jaakko Hanninen (AG2R Citroën).

Roger Adrià (EKP) has stopped to take care of a mechanical. We're still in the neutral zone of today's stage. 

And today's stage is officially underway! We have 190km to go from Carmargo to Cistierna. 

Alexey Lutsenko (AST) has attacked already has a small advantage on the bunch. 

Lutsenko has been caught, and four riders have countered the move. 

And that four have turned into six as two more bridge up to the early break. The gap is 14 seconds so far. We'll have names to follow, that is, if they don't get brought back immediately. 

The current breakaway is: Fred Wright (TBV), Harrison Sweeny (LTS), Jesús Herrada (COF), Omer Goldstein (IPT), Samuele Battistella (AST) and Jimmy Janssens (ADC) with 20 seconds. Their lead seems to be growing.

Jetse Bol (Burgos-BH) looks like he's trying to get across to the six up the road. 

But Bol is brought back by the bunch. Today might not be his day to be up the road. Euskaltel - Euskadi have accelerated in the pack. 

The gap to the breakaway is growing just a bit bigger - now it's 33 seconds to the bunch. After catching Bol they calmed down again. 

Xabier Mikel Azparren (Euskaltel - Euskadi) was the next to try and jump across, but he couldn't make it either. His Basque team is leading the peloton, but the gap to the front group continues to grow. 

The gap is 40 seconds to the six leaders. 

Now we see the gap decrease slightly as Euskaltel-Euskadi continue to drive the front. They aren't pleased they missed the breakaway today. 

AG2R Citroën Team and Bahrain - Victorious have also come to the front, but it may not be for the same reasons as Euskaltel - Euskadi. The pace has slowed way down in the bunch, and the gap has increased to a minute. 

The average speed has been quite high so far, at 49.6kph.

Team BikeExchange - Jayco has taken over the front of the peloton to set the pace. We're 36km into the stage. 

The gap has increased up to 3'00". Things are settling in now. 

Team BikeExchange - Jayco is getting some help from Trek Segafredo at the front of the peloton. They've covered 40km so far. 

It's a humid day out there at the moment. The temperature is currently 20.6 °C degrees. 

It's a fast pace in the early part of today's stage. The average speed after the first hour is 46.1 kph. 

The breakaway is going quickly, and extending their lead as they reach the 50km point. The gap is up to 3'45". 

Yevgeniy Fedorov (Astana Qazaqstan Team) has crashed in the peloton. Not sure if there were any other riders involved. 

Yevgeniy Fedorov (Astana Qazaqstan Team) is back in the bunch after going down and seeing the medical car for help. 

The breakaway has four minutes on the peloton, which is led by BikeExchange and Trek-Segafredo. 

Fred Wright (TBV), Harrison Sweeny (LTS), Jesús Herrada (COF), Omer Goldstein (IPT), Samuele Battistella (AST) and Jimmy Janssens (ADC) have 4'06 on the peloton with 125km left in the stage. 

We have a ways to go before the summit of the massive mid race climb on the menu today, Puerto de San Glorio (Cat. 1). There's 60km until the summit. 

120km to go

The gap to the leaders is sitting at 4'20 with 120km to go. 

The speeds are starting to rise in the peloton, and the bunch is splitting under the pressure. Small groups are all over the road. 

Because of that turn in speed, the gap keeps decreasing. But the break still has four minutes. 

The temperature is gradually getting colder, and will undoubtedly continue as they start gaining altitude. It's currently 17 degrees out on the road. 

Our brave leaders are approaching 100km to go in the stage and 40km until the summit at Puerto de San Glorio.

The Cat. 1 Puerto de San Glorio is 22.4km long and averages 5.5 percent. The Vuelta last added the ascent in 2014.

The road has started increasing in gradient, but there are still about 20km before the leaders hit the official start of the climb of the day. 

After two hours, the average speed has been 42kph. 

89km to go

The leaders have gone through the feed zone for some food and drink before the climb really starts going. We're about to hit the start. 

There are some clouds over the race course now as the leaders start the climb. They have a head start of 3'30" in front of the peloton. 

Cataldo, Cavagna and Durbridge are the riders sharing the workload at the front of the peloton. They are 3'13 behind the six leaders. 

80km to go

Merlier has been dropped from the peloton as the climb kicks into gear. 

Merlier has two Alpecin-Deceuninck teammates with him. Meanwhile, at the front, Kenny Elissonde is setting the pace. The gap is down to 2'45. 

Langellotti and Ackermann have been dropped, but Langellotti's KOM jersey should be safe today. 

9.5km left until the top of the mountain and the gap is down to 2'40.

Omer Goldstein (Israel - Premier Tech) has been dropped out of the breakaway, the first rider to do so. 

The gap is holding at 2'50 with 7km to the summit. 

70km to go

Now we see the leaders accelerate to bring the gap back up to 3 minutes with Goldstein still in the gap at 50 seconds. 

If Sam Bennett makes it up and over this climb, and he's looking good right now, his team will likely help with the chase to bring back these leaders. 

Omer Goldstein (Israel - Premier Tech) has been caught by the main bunch. 

There's 3km to the top of the climb. 

The Trek team has the leaders at three minutes, and Bennett is still looking good in the break.

Jesús Herrada (Cofidis) has attacked to take the KOM points over the top of the climb. 

Bennett has been dropped toward the top of the climb. He's 30 seconds down on the main bunch. 

He has one teammate with him. 

60km to go

Fred Wright (TBV) has caught Jesús Herrada (COF) and they're working together on the descent.

Results of the Cat. 1 KOM at Puerto de San Glorio: 

They should fly down to the finish after this climb.  Fred Wright (TBV) and Jesús Herrada (COF) have been joined by Harrison Sweeny (LTS) and Samuele Battistella (AST).

Jimmy Janssens (Alpecin-Deceuninck) is back with the breakaway as well, so they're all together again on the descent. The gap is 2'35. 

Bennett is 25 seconds behind the peloton. The speeds are high as the riders navigate the descent. 

50km to go

Bennett has made it back into the bunch, and back in contention for the finish if they catch the break. 

Now Luke Plapp (Ineos Grenadiers) is doing the tempo. Ineos has interested in getting Hayter a result here today. 

Will Bora help out with the chase now that Bennett is back? 

The five leaders are approaching 40km to go and have a gap of 2'25.

Team Arkéa - Samsic is helping BikeExchange with the chase, Bora is sitting back for now. 

Arkea is working for their stage hopeful Dan McLay. There's about 33km to go and the gap is holding at 2'15'.

They are hauling it down the climb with 30km to go. The gap is 2'05. 

Rémy Rochas (Cofidis) has abandoned after crashing earlier in the stage. 

There's still over two minutes advantage to the breakaway, and it's starting to look like they might not be coming back. 

The leaders are five kilometres to the intermediate sprint. 

25km to go

There's 3km to go until the intermediate sprint. Fred Wright (TBV), Harrison Sweeny (LTS), Jesús Herrada (COF), Samuele Battistella (AST) and Jimmy Janssens (ADC) have 2'07 on the chasing peloton. 

We're inside 25km to go, and the gap is coming down slightly, but the two teams leading are going to need some more help. 

Now Bora-Hansgrohe has come up to help, and the gap is diminishing quickly. This is going to be a very speedy finish. 

15km to go.

The average speed in the last hour has been over 50kph. 

Now it's down to 1'14 and the kilometres are flying by. 

10km to go

The breakaway is inside a minute with 8.5km to go. 

This is going to be very close! With 5km to go, the gap is 50 seconds.

They can't fool around once they get to the finish. It's close but with 3.5km to go, the gap is going back up slightly to 45 seconds. 

The peloton seems to have missed their opportunity today. The gap is holding at 45 seconds. 

This might be lined up well for Wright, who is hungry for a victory at the Vuelta and is in top form. 

Here we go into the finish! 

Can anyone get the better of Fred Wright? 

Herrada tests Wright right at the line! 

And Jesus Herrada gets it! Wow, the Spaniard played it just right to come by at the line. 

Herrada takes his second win at the Vuelta a Espana!

Congratulations to veteran Jesus Herrada for winning an emotional stage 7 of the Vuelta a Espana. Samuele Battistella (Astana Qazaqstan) squeezed by Fred Wright to take second, while the Brit ended up third. 

Remco Evenepoel will stay in the red jersey after today's stage. He's still 21 seconds ahead of Rudy Molard going into tomorrow. 

It was never for sure who was going to come out on top, the peloton or the breakaway, but in true Vuelta fashion, surprises are always in store and Herrada takes an emotional win a week into the race. Sam Bennett will stay in green, Victor Langellotti is in polka dots and Juan Ayuso is in white. 

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