Sprint Surprise

Geoffrey Soupe sprinted past Orluis Aular in Oliva. If we had made twenty or thirty bets, we would hardly have hit that combination. Soupe is a 35-year French veteranfrom the TotalEnergies team, He is very recognizable in the peloton due to his bushy beardbut very little given his record, which so far has included only two stages and the general of the Tropicale Amissa Bongo in Gabon. Not even Soupe himself believed it, that’s the truth. Aular is younger, 26 years old, but has had many more victories almost all for their country, Venezuela, while he does his thing now First steps in Europe with Caja Rural. The Frenchman finished eighth on stage five. The Venezuelan, sixth in the fourth. They were present at the previous fights, albeit as distant witnesses. These two days won Kaden Groves, the most famous sprinter this edition, but this time he got stuck after exiting the last corner and could only finish fifth. You have to recognize that The line-up of sprinters isn’t what shines the most on this tour.

Lenny Martínez retained the red jersey with no trepidation. The general’s only changes were these two bonus seconds caught by Jonas Vingegaard in the flying gate of Cullera. The Dane is now placed three seconds by Remco Evenepoel, in an apparent battle for positions ahead of Tuesday’s time trial in Valladolid. Better go out with the competitor’s references.

Before these fights, the cyclists had been taking it easy after the Javalambre heat. The flat stretch between Utiel and Oliva, over 201 soporific kilometers, It was a good opportunity to recharge your batteries for Saturday and Sunday two new arrivals at high altitude in Xorret de Catí and Caravaca, and especially for the two challenging weeks ahead. The only danger the plant posed was the wind, which was always threatening on the coast but usually hit the wall and when there was a turn to exploit there wasn’t much desire. The peloton signed the truce at the finish line 30 minutes late and at an average speed of 40.63 km/h, while the expected speed was 44 km/h.

The calm, as is usual in these cases, was broken at the end of the trip the escape of Jesús Herrada and Ander Okamika already neutralized. Either by over-relaxing, or by accelerating the last few miles, or by a mixture of both, it was there two falls, the second more massive than the first. The main victim was Thymen Arensman, a key Ineos cyclist who left in an ambulance. The British team starts in La Vuelta this year. The first retiree, as you remember, was Laurent de Plus. And Geraint Thomas himself, their leader, suffered a fall The same Friday that forced Jonathan Castroviejo to do extra work.

Lenny spent a relatively quiet day in the first defense of his red jersey, which he enjoyed for nearly five hours. His jersey is not like the others as Lenny is cycling for history. became Thursday at 20 years and 51 days the youngest leader of the Vuelta, a record that has been there since 1985 Miguel Indurain, no more and no less, who wore the garment at the age of 20 years and 283 days. It is curious that the third of this ranking was also present in this edition: the Italian Lorenzo Milesi, who was already out of the race after a fall. Martínez can boast of his achievement ahead of his predecessors, who were also great runners. Miguel Martínez, his equally precocious father, was an Olympic champion and the Mountain Bike World Championships, but things weren’t so rosy on the road. His grandfather Mariano, a contemporary of Eddy Merckx and Luis Ocaña Yes, he was a great ‘routier’: winner of two stages and the Mountain Award (1978) at the Tour and bronze at the 1974 World Championships. Its origins are Spanish, as the surname suggests: Mariano was born in Burgos, but at the age of 15 he became a French citizen. Caste comes to the greyhound.

General Ranking

after cyclist	equipment	Time
1 Geoffrey Soupe	HAVE	4h:56:29
2 Orluis Alberto Aular Sanabria	CJR	+00:00
3 Edward Theuns	TFS	+00:00
4 Juan Sebastián Molano	UAD	+00:00
5 Caden Groves	ADC	+00:00
6 Marijn van den Berg	EFE	+00:00
7 David Gonzalez	CJR	+00:00
8th Hugo Page	ICW	+00:00
9 Filippo Ganna	IGD	+00:00
10 Matevz Govekar	TBV	+00:00

after cyclist	equipment	Time
1 Lenny Martinez	GFC	26:37:04
2 Sep kiss	TJV	+00:08
3 Marc Soler	UAD	+00:51
4 Wouter Poels	TBV	+01:41
5 Steff Cras	HAVE	+01:48
6 Michael Landa	TBV	+01:58
7 David de la Cruz Melgarejo	BRANCH	+02:23
8th Jefferson Alveiro Cepeda	CJR	+02:30
9 Remco Evenepoel	SOQ	+02:47
10 Jonas Vingegaard Rasmussen	TJV	+02:50

See full classification