Stage 7 | Llíria / Cuenca | Vuelta a España 2017

It was another day for a breakaway at the Vuelta a España as stage seven took the riders inland from Llíria to Cuenca. Richard Moore, Daniel Friebe and Fran Reyes discuss a stage that almost supplied a fascinating twist to the plot when it seemed that Jetse Bol, of the tiny Colombian Manzana Postobon team, might take the red jersey of overall leader from Chris Froome.

In the end Bol fell short by just 47 seconds, but how did a Dutchman end up on a Colombian team? Fran spoke to Bol to find out. We also hear from Poland’s Pawel Poljanski, second for the second consecutive stage, and from another of the breakaway riders, Rafael Reis, who was knocked off by a motorbike. There have been a number of incidents with motorbikes at the Vuelta but Reis refused to blame the pilots: “They are humans, we are humans, we all make mistakes.”

In the final part we speak to two riders who are battling for survival at the Vuelta: Jelle Wallays, who has suffered two heavy crashes, and Conor Dunne, the Irishman making his Grand Tour debut for Aqua Blue Sport.

The Cycling Podcast is supported by Rapha and Science in Sport.