French precedes Aular and Theuns; Arensman falls and retreats
Soupe wins the seventh stage of the 200km Vuelta from Utiel to Oliva in a sprint finish.
The duo breakaway formed by Okamika (Burgos-BH) and Herrada (Cofidis) does not scare the peloton who cancels it already with 40 km to go.
Groves wins the intermediate sprint in Cullera, while Vingegaard gains 2” on his rivals, finishing third.
5 km from the end, yet another fall in the group: Arensman of Ineos pays the price, who is forced to retire .
The final sprint was surprisingly won by Geoffrey Soupe of TotalEnergies ahead of Aular and Theuns , while Groves and Ganna remained delayed in the last corner before the final straight and finished in fifth and ninth position.
Lenny Martinez keeps the red jersey firmly.
ARRIVAL ORDER:
1 SOUPE Geoffrey TotalEnergies 4:56:29
2 AULAR Orluis Caja Rural - Seguros RGA,,
3 THEUNS Edward Lidl - Trek ,,
4 MOLANO Juan Sebastián UAE Team Emirates ,,
5 GROVES Kaden Alpecin-Deceuninck ,,
6 VAN DEN BERG Marijn EF Education-EasyPost ,,
7 GONZÁLEZ David Caja Rural - Seguros RGA ,,
8 PAGE Hugo Intermarché - Circus - Wanty ,,
9 GANNA Philip INEOS Grenadiers,,
10 GOVEKAR Matevž Bahrain - Victorious ,,
Photo: Sprint Cycling Agency