Favorites stage 7 Vuelta a Espana 2024 | Hot head: if not through Alto del 14%, then in Cordoba

And so we are already at the seventh stage of the Vuelta a Espana. The riders are still based in the south of Spain. In the heart of August, the peloton heads to the warmest city on the European mainland, Cordoba. IDLProCycling tells you what you need to know ahead of the stage.

Route stage 7 Vuelta a Espana 2024

The riders will start Friday in Archidona, from where they will embark on a 180-kilometer stage through the province of Cordoba. Most of the stage is on so-called Spanish flat roads, which appear flat but are constantly up and down. They will arrive in Cordoba after 140 kilometers, but not yet before the finish.

There is an intermediate sprint, but the peloton is sent over the Alto del 14% once more. The climb may be called that, but it still gives a somewhat distorted picture: the hill is 7.4 kilometers long at an average gradient of 5.6%, with the top at 25 kilometers from the finish.

The second-to-last kilometer is very steep, with an 11 percent gradient, probably the reason for the name. Once at the top, a plateau of about five kilometers follows before the riders begin the frantic descent to Cordoba. The finish is just after a left turn, after a final of thirteen flat kilometers.

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That's where we already got a taste of what's in store for this stage in 2021 when the Vuelta also arrived in Cordoba. Back then, the stage was decided in a sprint with about fifty men, won by Magnus Cort. The fast Dane held off Andrea Bagioli, Michael Matthews, and Matteo Trentin at the time.

Climbs
154.7 km: Alto del 14% (7.4 km a 5.6%)

Timetable
Start: 1:10 p.m.
Finish: 5:20 p.m.

Weather stage 7 Vuelta a Espana 2024

We arrive in the hottest city in Spain, and the riders will be aware of it: temperatures of around 40 degrees Celsius are also expected in Cordoba on Friday. Apply plenty of sunscreen, drink well, and don't go too crazy, as Grandma would say.

Favorites stage 7 Vuelta a Espana 2024

We're back with one of those typical Vuelta stages, which could go either way. Yet this stage is significantly more straightforward to control than, say, Thursday's stage, in which Ben O'Connor pulled a putsch in the stage. His team, Decathlon AG2R, will thus be one of the teams to take control, along with...

Visma | Lease a Bike and Alpecin-Deceuninck, since this is also one of the last chances for the excellent climbing sprinters on paper. Someone like Edoardo Affini could ride in front of Wout van Aert for miles on this stage, knowing that the same type as Magnus Cort managed to win here in 2021. Kaden Groves is also quite capable of climbing: in the Giro, he used such opportunities to put pressure on other sprinters.

We are slightly less sure about Pavel Bittner (dsm-firmenich PostNL), but the Czech can also keep up reasonably well uphill. Other fast men like Corbin Strong (Israel-Premier Tech), Bryan Coquard (Cofidis), Carlos Canal (Movistar), and Pau Miquel (Equipo Kern Pharma) usually lack the pure speed to beat Van Aert and Groves. Then again, for Arne Marit (Intermarché-Wanty), the Alto del 14% seems too tricky.

The classic types can make their move here in several ways. On the one hand, via the early breakaway; on the other hand, via an attack on the Alto del 14%, a later move, or even a sprint of a smaller group. In that scenario, you'll end up with Jhonatan Narváez (INEOS Grenadiers), Mathias Vacek (Lidl-Trek), and Mauro Schmid (Jayco AlUla), while Stefan Küng of Groupama-FDJ is also throwing himself entirely.

Candidates for a lengthy undertaking? Of course, there will be some. Although that's always a bit of a random guess, perhaps Quentin Pacher (Groupama-FDJ), Brandon Rivera (INEOS), Lorenzo Rota (Intermarché-Wanty), and Oier Lazkano of Movistar.

Favorites stage 7 Vuelta a Espana 2024, according to IDLProCycling

Top favorites: Wout van Aert (Visma | Lease a Bike) and Jhonatan Narvaéz (INEOS Grenadiers)
Outsiders: Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Corbin Strong (Israel-Premier Tech), Mathias Vacek (Lidl-Trek) and Mauro Schmid (Jayco AlUla)
Long shots: Pavel Bittner (dsm-firmenich PostNL), Carlos Canal (Movistar), Bryan Coquard (Cofidis), Lorenzo Rota (Intermarché-Wanty), Stefan Küng, Quentin Pacher (Groupama-FDJ), Pau Miquel (Equipo Kern Pharma), and Brandon Rivera (INEOS Grenadiers)