Chris Froome’s hopes of victory in the Vuelta a España suffered a punch to the solar plexus today on the steep finishing climb of stage seven, to La Alpujarra.
Froome, the Team Sky leader, seeks a Tour de France-Vuelta a Espana double accomplished by only two men in history, but he will need a mighty effort in the remaining fortnight of the race after Fabio Aru, the Sardinian leader of Astana, flickered clear in the devilishly steep final kilometres to leave the other contenders floundering.
The 191.1-kilometre stage, starting in Jódar, was won by Bert-Jan Lindeman, the unheralded LottoNL-Jumbo rider, ahead of Ilia Koshevoy, an equally unremarkable Belarusian riding for Lampre-Merida. Esteban Chaves, the pint-sized Colombian climber, remains in the red leader’s jersey, ten seconds ahead of the rangy Tom Dumoulin, one of the surprises of the first week.
As so often, however, the meat on the bones of the narrative played out behind the breakaway, as Aru, the taciturn Italian who has prepared for this race since finishing as runner-up to Alberto Contador at the Giro d’Italia in May, put 38 seconds into Froome. Tejay van Garderen, the American leader of BMC, lost more time, finishing in a bedraggled manner a handful of seconds after Froome.
Froome, the two-times Tour de France winner, admitted at the start of the race that his condition was nowhere near the level he reached coming into the Tour in July. Aru, on the other hand, appears in peak form and no longer has the burden of the Astana leadership contest, with Vincenzo Nibali disqualified for hitching a ride on the team car.
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The Kenyan-born Briton, now 12th overall, one second behind Mikel Nieve, his team-mate, may have to wait for his chance to bite back at Aru. Stage eight, from Puebla de Don Fadrique to Murcia, is a curious affair - 182.5 kilometres, three quarters of which are downhill, with two third-category climbs towards the finish, offering little of interest to the general classification contenders.