Spain’s Juan Ayuso claimed victory on stage seven of the Vuelta a Espana as he bounced back from his struggles in the Pyrenees a day earlier.

Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) was dropped on the final climb in the first mountain stage of this year’s race on Thursday and lost significant time in the general classification in his bid to challenge favourite Jonas Vingegaard.

But the 22-year-old returned to his best on Friday’s 188km stretch, which started at Andorra la Vella and finished at Cerler, to win his first individual Vuelta stage.

“After the Giro, when I won my first Grand Tour stage, to win a stage here in the Vuelta, which is my favourite race, it’s amazing,” said Ayuso.

“The way I won the race especially, I will remember always and I am super proud.”

Italy’s Marco Frigo (Israel-Premier Tech) finished one minute 15 seconds behind Ayuso for second place while Spain’s Raul Garcia Pierna (Arkea-B&B Hotels) was third.

Norway’s Torstein Traeen (Bahrain Victorious) retained the red jersey after fighting back to finish alongside Vingegaard (Visma–Lease a Bike).

Denmark’s Vingegaard, the two-time Tour de France winner, climbed to second overall but is still 2mins 33secs behind Traeen.

Stage winner Ayuso, who was third overall in 2022 and fourth the following year, is almost seven and a half minutes behind Traeen.

“It was not an easy day and we didn’t want to go,” Vingegaard said. “We wanted to still try to save our energy a bit, so we decided not to do anything today.”

Saturday’s eighth stage will be along a flat 163.5km route from Monzon Templario to Zaragoza.