Andreas Leknessund won stage seven of the Vuelta a España, attacking out of a five-rider breakaway 7.5km from the summit finish at Aramón Valdelinares and riding alone to the line.
It was his first Grand Tour stage win, on his first Vuelta. His Uno-X Mobility teammate and compatriot Tobias Johannessen came in second, which made it a Norwegian one-two on a day Norway was not thinking about cycling.
The day itself
The stage ran 149.8km from Vall d’Alba to a summit finish, and the break was allowed the room that a mid-week mountain day usually allows one. Leknessund went early enough that the move could have failed and late enough that nobody behind him organised in time.
Norway spent the day in mourning for King Harald. Leknessund’s own assessment of the win, set against that, was that it was a small thing in the bigger picture.
Where it leaves the race
A stage win for a rider on debut does not move the general classification, and Uno-X will take it as the return on a Vuelta they came to for exactly this. There is a lot of climbing left.
