{"id":2116997,"date":"2026-08-28T15:47:39","date_gmt":"2026-08-28T12:47:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2116997"},"modified":"2026-08-28T15:47:39","modified_gmt":"2026-08-28T12:47:39","slug":"vuelta-a-espana-stage-7-uno-x-mobility-goes-1-2-after-van-aert-lights-up-day-long-break","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2116997","title":{"rendered":"Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a Stage 7: Uno-X Mobility Goes 1-2 After Van Aert Lights Up Day-Long Break"},"content":{"rendered":"
Andreas Leknessund and Tobias Johannessen gave Uno-X Mobility an emphatic breakaway 1-2 on Friday at the Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a in a day of mourning in their home country of Norway.<\/p>\n
The two Norsemen and their Uno-X Mobility teammates rode in black armbands on stage 7 as a mark of respect for King Harald V, who died early Friday morning aged 89.<\/p>\n
Wout van Aert finished third after he animated an epic day-long attack of five riders to overhaul Tadej Poga\u010dar in the green jersey classification.<\/p>\n
Poga\u010dar and UAE Emirates XRG let the breakaway have its day in Friday\u2019s grueling medium mountain stage.<\/p>\n
But the Slovenian didn\u2019t waste an opportunity to take a dig at his rivals back in the peloton.<\/p>\n
Poga\u010dar responded to some late aggression from Felix Gall and Decathlon CMA CGM by attacking in the final Ks of the mountain finish to pad his GC advantage by a few more seconds.<\/p>\n
\n
ADVERTISEMENT<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Poga\u010dar\u2019s late kick leaves him 3:50 ahead of second-place Enric Mas (Movistar) ahead of a sprint stage on Saturday. Third-place Primo\u017e Rogli\u010d (Red Bull) lost 13 seconds to the Spaniard in the final and finishes the day at 4:50 overall.<\/p>\n
Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) and Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) both lost significant time when the GC peloton shattered behind Gall and Poga\u010dar\u2019s accelerations but held on to their positions in the top-10.<\/p>\n
Leknessund, finally<\/h2>\nScandinavian team Uno-X Mobility observed a minute\u2019s silence at the start of the stage in honor of King Harald V.<\/span> (Photo: Alexander Hassenstein\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Friday\u2019s stage win was doubly significant for Leknessund.<\/p>\n
The 27-year-old is regularly on the attack when his team comes to a grand tour, but he has had to make do with finishing second four times. He was runner-up an incredible three times at this year\u2019s Giro.<\/p>\n
Leknessund could barely contain his emotions at finally getting\u00a0that\u00a0<\/em>marquee win.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s hard to say how I feel. I didn\u2019t expect it to be this emotional,\u201d a tearful Leknessund said at the finish. \u201cThere are so many feelings around this. I\u2019ve been fighting really hard [for a grand tour victory], it means a lot.<\/p>\n
\n
ADVERTISEMENT<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a special day for the team and the whole of Norway,\u201d he added, speaking of the death of the nation\u2019s long-serving monarch. \u201cOf course it\u2019s a small thing in the bigger picture, but it makes the day more special.\u201d<\/p>\n
Van Aert causes mayhem in the mountains<\/h2>\nVan Aert was crucial to forming the winning attack of stage 7 of the Vuelta. (Photo: Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Wout van Aert\u2019s all-attacking Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a continued Friday.<\/p>\n
He started the day wearing the green jersey on behalf of classification leader Poga\u010dar, but wanted to score enough points to earn it outright.<\/p>\n
WVA and Leknessund made their decisive attack after around less than 10km of racing before Eddie Dunbar (Pinarello Q36.5), Alexey Lutsenko (NSN Pro Cycling), and Leknessund\u2019s teammate Johannessen joined to make the final five who survived to the final.<\/p>\n
A mob of chasers formed behind the lead attack in the opening 50km.<\/p>\n
The pursuit of 16 included plenty of potential stage-winners, but Leknessund, Van Aert and the leaders were fully committed in the Vuelta\u2019s first true breakaway stage.<\/p>\n
They rolled together all through the grinding course and\u00a0hit the base of the final 10km climb with around one minute over the chasers.<\/p>\n
\n
ADVERTISEMENT<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Leknessund was the dangerman in the break, and he didn\u2019t wait to live up to that billing. The Norwegian climber attacked around 6km from the line and steadily grew a gap.<\/p>\n
Van Aert defied his size to lead the chase behind Leknessund. However, gravity was against him, and he had Leknessund\u2019s teammate Johannessen stuck on his wheel.<\/p>\n
Johannessen merely had to wait to dispatch his Belgian rival. The Norwegian dropped Van Aert 1km from the line to bring Uno-X Mobility a 1-2 on a day of mourning back home in Norway.<\/p>\n
Decathlon lights up final after UAE lets the break go<\/h2>\nPoga\u010dar let the break win the stage but he still gained time on his rivals.<\/span> (Photo: Tim de Waele\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Poga\u010dar finally decided to cool his jets Friday.<\/p>\n
After winning 3 stages already and encountering a bit of a scare Thursday at the hands of Enric Mas, Pogi let UAE Emirates-XRG play defense.<\/p>\n
The UAE superteam gave the group more than 5 minutes of a gap through to the 10km summit finish.<\/p>\n
Only Decathlon CMA-CGM continued its commitment to attack. The French team tried to put on the pressure for Gall through the final 5km to the line.<\/p>\n
It worked to some extent.<\/p>\n
\n
ADVERTISEMENT<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Gall was inevitably dropped by Poga\u010dar when the Slovenian moved in the final kilometer, but the ambitious Austrian finished best of the rest to inch himself closer to the overall podium.<\/p>\n
Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a stage 7 results<\/h2>\n\n<\/div>\n
[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GettyImages-2291879189-scaled.jpg”] Jim Cotton Updated August 28, 2026 10:54AM Andreas Leknessund and Tobias Johannessen gave Uno-X Mobility an emphatic breakaway 1-2 on Friday at the Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a in a day of mourning in their home country of Norway. The two Norsemen and their Uno-X Mobility teammates rode in black armbands on stage 7 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,71],"class_list":["post-2116997","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-velo-outsideonline-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2116997","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2116997"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2116997\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2116997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2116997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2116997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![](\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GettyImages-2292421637.jpg?width=2048&auto=webp&quality=75&fit=cover\")
![\"Van](\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GettyImages-2292449095.jpg?width=2048&auto=webp&quality=75&fit=cover\")
![](\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GettyImages-2292446106.jpg?width=2048&auto=webp&quality=75&fit=cover\")