Wout van Aert claimed his second victory at the Vuelta a España 2024 by taking Stage 7 on Friday in a thrilling sprint finale.

The Belgian Visma-Lease a Bike rider edged Mathias Vacek and Pau Miquel with an explosive burst to the finish line in Cordoba at the end of a 180.5-kilometer ride from Archidona.

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Ben O'Connor retains a commanding overall lead after his remarkable Stage 6 victory on Thursday, but three-time winner Primoz Roglic snatched back six bonus seconds at the top of the day's only categorized climb.

Van Aert had teammate and last year's Vuelta winner Sepp Kuss to thank for pulling hard to bring the front of the race together, giving him the platform to snatch victory.

"I knew the final climb was hard, but I didn't expect the race would explode like this," Van Aert told Eurosport. "I found myself with Sepp alone in the front group. It was really difficult to manage, but Sepp did such an amazing job.

"The defending champion of this race pulling for you, that's a huge example of our team philosophy -- because of that, I'm so proud."

Van Aert had not tasted victory since February, but after holding off Kaden Groves in Stage 3, he secured his second triumph in five days in the baking Andalusian heat.

Australian O'Connor leads the overall standings by 4 minutes, 45 seconds from veteran Slovenian rider Roglic, with Portugal's Joao Almeida third, a further 14 seconds back.

Explosive Finale To Stage 7 At Vuelta a España 2024

It was Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale rider O'Connor's first day wearing a Grand Tour leader's jersey, but it will not be his last.

"It was a super easy day until the finale, which was explosive," O'Connor said. "I can't really do much with Primoz's sprint for the bonuses, but he'll have to take a lot of bonuses to make up that kind of time."

Xabier Isasa made an early break and kept building on it, moving eight minutes clear of a slow-paced peloton after 50 kilometers.

The Spaniard won the intermediate sprint, before being swallowed up with 38 kilometers to go, as the peloton headed for the Alto del 14%.

Roglic claimed his bonus seconds at the summit, while sprinter Groves crashed at the top shortly afterward.

The Australian got back on his bike, but it kept him out of contention for another sprint showdown with Van Aert.

Marc Soler attacked with 20 kilometers to go and carved out a small lead on the chase group, which he maintained well.

Van Aert attacked, but Soler's teammate Pavel Sivakov reeled him back in, before the Spaniard eventually was caught with little over three kilometers remaining after impressive work from Kuss.

"The pace was hard, but when I saw Wout there, I knew he was on a good day," Kuss explained. "It was a suffer-fest to pull Soler back, but it feels like a victory for me too. It was really nice to be there with Wout."

Stage 8 of La Vuelta on Saturday takes riders 159 kilometers from Ubeda to Cazorla.

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