Vuelta a San Juan Stage 7 – Live Coverage

Good afternoon and welcome to stage 7 at the Vuelta a San Juan.

The peloton is racing 141km in on a San Juan circuit.

There is a seven-rider breakaway that formed during the opening lap:

Andrea Garosio (Vini Zabu' KTM)

Nathan Brown (Rally Cycling)

Colin Joyce (Rally Cycling)

Riccardo Marchesini (Amore e Vita-Prodir)

Leonardo Rodriguez (Municipalidad de Rawson)

Higinio Lucero (Municipalidad de Rawson)

There is a chase group at 57 seconds behind the leaders on the road:

Garikoitz Bravo Oiarbide (Fundacion-Orbea)

Amadid Castel (Panama)

Emiliano Contreras (Puertas de Cuyo)

Leandro Velardez (Agrupacion Virgin de Fatima-Saddledrunk)

Alexey Limaylla (Peru)

It looks like Garikoitz Bravo Oiarbide (Fundacion-Orbea) and Emiliano Contreras (Puertas de Cuyo) are no longer in the chase group.

Amadid Castel (Panama), Leandro Velardez (Agrupacion Virgin de Fatima-Saddledrunk), Alexey Limaylla (Peru) are still chasing at just over a minute behind the lead group.

The seven riders in the breakaway have 1:10 over the chase group and 1:35 over the main field.

86km to go and the break hold their advantage at 1'44 as a gaggle of teams lead the charge at the front of the peloton.

Androni-Sidermec lead the peloton at present but they have help waiting in the wings with UAE Team Emirates starting to move up as well. There are still over 80km to go but the peloton are not letting the break establish a healthy lead.

Brown and Joyce from Rally are both still in the leading group and helping to control the tempo but we've just seen the break drop 10 seconds.

Back in the bunch and Remco Evenepoel has taken on a fresh set of bottles after his teammates grabbed a feed for the race leader as they went through the feedzone. 75km to go and the gap is at 1'22.

The bunch might want to ease off slightly because they're chipping away about 20 seconds per 5km at the moment. They won't want to make the catch too soon.

65km to and the peloton do indeed ease off and allow the break to take back around 10 seconds. The gap is currently at 1'24.

The counter attack looks to have been swallowed up, so we just have the break and then the peloton at 1'19. The bunch have eased off but the race leader's team are now setting the pace. 

A few gaps have appeared in the break because a few riders are skipping turns. That's not a good sign with such a long way still to go.

The break look like they're back together, and they still have that 1'19 advantage over the peloton with 52km to go. Androni are still on the front and sharing turns with QuickStep. 

There's no doubt about it though, the break are struggling at the moment. Again, there are a few missed turns, the odd shake of heads but they still have over a minute.

A reminder of our six leaders on the road:

Andrea Garosio (Vini Zabu' KTM)

Nathan Brown (Rally Cycling)

Colin Joyce (Rally Cycling)

Riccardo Marchesini (Amore e Vita-Prodir)

Leonardo Rodriguez (Municipalidad de Rawson)

Higinio Lucero (Municipalidad de Rawson)

43km to go and the break has split now.

Joyce is still out there and plugging away but it's not clear if he's leading or chasing at the moment. 

Joyce is last man standing out there but there are no time checks to the peloton.

33km to go and Joyce from Rally holds a 1'10 advantage over the peloton. 

Joyce is riding the time trial of his life out there and he's even taking time on the peloton as he rides through the feedzone. 31km to go and the gap is at 1'33.

Joyce takes a long drink but when the road gently starts to rise you can see he's starting to fade. He's lost ten seconds with the gap at 1'20 with 26km to go.

21km to go and the gap between Joyce and the peloton is just 55 seconds.

Joyce is a strong time triallist who placed 8th in the stage 3 time trial a few days ago. Unfortunately for him, there are several powerful sprint teams looking for a victory in San Juan today.

The gap has dropped to 20 seconds.

Overall Remco Evenepoel is looking very comfortable surrounded by his Deceuninck-QuickStep teammates. Don't count the team out for another stage victory. They have late attacker Zdenek Stybar, who won yesterday's stage, and sprinter Alvaro Hodeg who could win today.

Joyce has been caught and passed by the main field with 9km to go.

Bora-Hansgrohe have one rider leading the field, followed by five Deceuninck-QuickStep riders. Movistar are moving up the left side. 4km to go.

Deceuninck-QuickStep have fully taken over the lead-out with 3km to go.

Two riders try late attacks with 2km to go

Deceuninck-QuickStep still have a firm hold on the front of the field

A rider from Bardiani goes on the attack.

Deceuninck-QuickStep are starting to get swarmed, but two riders have pushed forward ahead of the sprint

Fernando Gaviria (UAE Team Emirates) wins stage 7 at the Vuelta a San Juan.

Gaviria proved fastest to the line ahead of runner-up Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Alvaro Hodeg (Deceuninck-QuickStep).

Remco Evenepoel (Deceuninck-QuickStep) has won the 2020 Vuelta a San Juan

Vuelta a San Juan stage 7 - Brief Results

Here is your stage 7 winner in action

And the overall winner of the 2020 Vuelta a San Juan

Thanks for following our live coverage of the Vuelta a San Juan this week.