BMC Racing Team’s world champion, Philippe Gilbert, was denied his first victory of the season and in the rainbow jersey, when former cyclocross world champion, Zdenek Stybar (OMPQ), beat him by mere inches after the pair managed to slip away inside the final nine kilometers of the 7th stage of Vuelta a España. 

Gilbert and Stybar took advantage of the very technical finale as they managed to escape the peloton and held it off to the very finish. The pair earned at one point 16 seconds to the chasing peloton, who was unable to reel in the escapees, although the speed measured above staggering 60 km/h at times.   

Passing la flamme rouge the lead dwindled to four seconds and it looked as if the they were about to lose the victory at the very finish line. With about 200 meters to go, Stybar put the hammer down and held off Gilbert, who tried to go around in the final meters.

"The final loop was tricky with narrow roads. There was only trajectory and I took profit of the slipstream of a motorbike to escape from the peloton with [Zdenek] Stybar. We both contributed to the breakaway and he deserves his victory. He opened the sprint, I only moved up to his side at the very end but not early enough. I’m disappointed with the result. I miss winning but I’m finally happy with my condition. Good feelings are back after my crash at the Eneco Tour. It’s promising. I take the Vuelta day by day, trying to profit from the stages that suit me the most.”

It has not been a good season for the world champion and the runner-up finish was his fifth of the season. He took a second-place result on Stage 2 of the Eneco Tour of Benelux (Aug. 13), in the Belgian time trial championship (Aug. 11), at Brabantse Pijl (April 10) and in Stage 6 of Paris-Nice (March 9).