Andreas Leknessund leads Uno-X Mobility one-two on Vuelta a España stage 7

Andreas Leknessund wins stage seven Vuelta a Espana 2026 — (Image credit: Getty Images)

Norway's Andreas Leknessund broke clear of the front group to take a memorable mountain victory on stage seven of the Vuelta a España.

His countryman and Uno-X Mobility teammate Tobias Halland Johannessen completed a Norway one-two, with both riders wearing black armbands to commemorate the death of Norway's King Harald, which was announced early this morning.

Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike), who had attempted to chase Leknessund down having been out front with him for the entire stage, was third.

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Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) was the first of the main GC challenger to finish, coming in 19th at 4:23 behind a swathe of long-time breakaway riders. Felix Gall (Decathlon CMA CGM), followed by Enric Mas (Movistar) were best of the rest of the GC men, gaining 23 and 13 seconds respectively on the trio of Sepp Kuss (Visma-Lease a Bike), Oscar Onley (Netcompany-Ineos) and Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe).

Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EF Education) came away a significant GC loser, after being dropped in the final and slipping from fourth to seventh in the classification.

Leknessund, who broke away with Van Aert the moment the flagged dropped on the 148.9km stage, said afterwards how hard the day had been.

"I didn't expect it to be this emotional, but there's so much feelings," he said. "I've been fighting really hard - it means a lot. It was such a special day, going from the start with Wout. It was really hard, we were going so fast.

He said his teammate Johannessen had probably been the strongest climber in the group, and that "he basically gave me the win".

"Tobias came up, and when he was there it gave me confidence that today we could win. I believed he was the best climber in the group, and he maybe was, I think. We had a mission that one of us would have a gap on the last climb, he let my wheel go and basically gave me the win, and I'm really proud and grateful," he said.

Asked about the significance of the win, coming as it did on the day of his king's passing, Leknessund said: "It's been a special day for the team and for the whole of Norway. [The win] is a small thing in the bigger picture, but still, it makes the day more special."

It was a day for the breakaways, as the race ventured inland from Vall d'Alba on the east coast to Aramón Valdelinares in the Iberian mountains. Leknessund's early move with Van Aert was eventually joined by Eddie Dunbar (Pinarello Q36.5), Alexey Lutsenko (NSN Cycling) and of course Halland Johannessen, and quintet rode at the front for much of the day.

Behind was a large chase group of 20-plus riders, including the likes of Pursued by a big group including Bruno Armirail (Visma-Lease a Bike), Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) and Pello Bilbao (Bahrain Victorious), with the GC riders falling slowly back to the tune of six-minutes-plus for a large portion of the stage.

For once, it appeared that Pogačar had no particular designs on winning the stage, and the GC riders allowed the stage to play out ahead as Leknessund attacked with seven kilometres to go to the summit finish, never to be brought back, despite a concerted chase by Van Aert.

Vuelta a Espana 2026, stage seven: Vall d'Alba > Aramón Valdelinares, 148.9km

1. Andreas Leknessund (Nor) Uno-X Mobility, in 3:49:47
2. Tobias Johannessen (Nor) Uno-X Mobility, +34
3. Wout Van Aert (Bel) Visma-Lease A Bike, +47
4. Jakob Omrzel (Slo) Bahrain Victorious, +58
5. Juan Felipe Rodriguez Contreras (Col) EF Education-EasyPost, +1:13
6. Ivan Sosa (Col) Kern Pharma, +1:16
7. Alexey Lutsenko (Kaz) NSN Cycling, +1:44
8. Edward Dunbar (Irl) Pinarello-Q36.5, +1:51
9. Léo Bisiaux (Fra) Decathlon CMA CGM, +1:53
10. Raul Garcia (Spa) Movistar, +2:14

General Classification after stage seven

1. Tadej Pogačar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates-XRG, in 19:32:37
2. Enric Mas (Spa) Movistar, +3:50
3. Primož Roglič (Slo) Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe, +4:50
4. Felix Gall (Aut) Decathlon CMA CGM, +5:01
5. Sepp Kuss (USA) Visma-Lease a Bike, +6:05
6. Oscar Onley (GBr) Netcompany-Ineos, +6:06
7. Richard Carapaz (Ecu) EF Education-EasyPost, +6:12
8. Mattias Skjelmose (Den) Lidl-Trek, +7:17
9. Harold Tejada (Col) XDS-Astana, +7:46
10. Gregor Mühlberger (Aut) Decathlon CMA CGM, +9:29

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