Fabio Aru is rarely a man to give much away, but the sight of Astana teammates Dario Cataldo and Luis Leon Sanchez driving at the front of the red jersey group on the seemingly interminable haul up the Alto de Capileira on stage 7 of the Vuelta a España was something of a tell.
Even so, the ferocity of Aru’s attack with 1,500 metres remaining still startled. Dan Martin (Cannondale-Garmin) and Rafal Majka (Tinkoff-Saxo) had already tested the waters, but the Sardinian seemed to have found a different current when he launched his own effort.
Though Aru would only gain seven seconds by the finish line – due in part, perhaps, to a finale that was not quite as steep as advertised in the road book – his acceleration did plunge Chris Froome (Team Sky) into difficulty. The Tour de France winner was scarcely able to steady the ship, and conceded 34 seconds to Aru by the finish.
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On crossing the line, a soigneur navigated Aru through the carnage of the finish area and to a safe haven further up the mountain. By the time a group of reporters arrived on the scene, Aru already had a towel around his neck and was being helped into a long sleeve jersey, ready for a quick getaway.
“Ah, it’s the first summit finish and I was looking for some answers,” Aru said simply after catching his breath. “I haven’t been feeling great since the crash [on stage 2 – ed.] and I wasn’t great on the shorter climbs but now I’m recovering and that’s good. Now we’ll just look to recover for the stages to come.”
Though only in his third year as a professional, Aru has already been at this game more than long enough to side-step the kind of questions that can turn into unwanted headlines. Asked what he made of putting more than half a minute into Froome, he gave a non-committal response that segued into answering a question that hadn’t even been put to him. Gianni Bugno would have approved.
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