Jonas van Genechten (IAM Cycling) took the Vuelta a Espana's stage 7 win from a reduced bunch sprint ahead of Tinkoff's Daniel Bennati and Movistar's Alejandro Valverde, who is now second overall behind BMC Racing's Darwin Atapuma.
But the real drama of the day took pave just shy of the finish line as Alberto Contador made contact with another rider in a tight lefthand turn within the final kilometres and slid across the pavement into the barriers. The three-times winner remounted and crossed the line to preserve his GC position of 12th overall, 1:52 behind Atapuma, but he was visibly upset at the line.
The day's 158.5km route from Maceda to Puebla de Sanabria started out with a barrage of attacks to form the day's breakaway, which eventually included Victor Campenaerts (Lotto NL-Jumbo), Johan Le Bon (FDJ), Sander Armée (Lotto Soudal), Davide Villella (Cannondale-Drapac), Vegard Laengen (IAM Cycling) and Luis Angel Mate (Cofidis).
Concerted chasing from a mix of teams took its toll over the undulating topography, and the race came back together with 43km to go, just before the Alto de Padornelo climb. More attacks flew, but in the hand it was and dash for the line from Luis Leon Sanchez (Astana) an Simon Clarke (Cannondale-Drapac) that almost won the day. It was not to be, however, as the reduced bunch tracked the riders down in the finishing straight to set up van Genechten's win.
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