The Canadian rider Michael Woods claimed a second career win at the Vuelta a España when he prevailed in the seventh stage, a 159.7km hilly ride between Vitoria-Gasteiz and Villanueva de Valdegovia on Tuesday. The EF-Education First rider attacked from a five-man leading group, 1.5km from the finish, to beat the Spaniards Omar Fraile and Alejandro Valverde who were second and third respectively. Richard Carapaz of Ecuador retained the red jersey as he crossed the line among the major contenders, 56sec off the pace. He still leads the British rider Hugh Carthy by 18sec and the Irishman Dan Martin by 20sec as Valverde, the 2009 champion, moved up to ninth, 2:03 behind Carapaz. In an explosive start to the stage, a large breakaway took shape and Woods, whose general classification hopes ended with a crash in the first stage, attacked 3km from the top of the last climb, the Puerto de Orduna. Woods was caught on the descent by Valverde, Fraile, the Frenchmen Guillaume Martin and Nans Peters. The Canadian, however, had some gas left in the tank in the finale, attacking decisively with nobody able to get into his slipstream with the 1km mark in sight. Woods said: “Initially I wasn’t supposed to be in the break but the race got so crazy and the group was so big I had to make sure we had the numbers in it.” Wednesday’s eighth stage is a 164km mountain ride from Logroño to the Alto de Moncalvillo.