Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana ProTeam) moved into the overall lead on stage 7 of the Vuelta a España.

Lopez has three tough rivals within 27 seconds of him overall, Primoz Roglic (Jumbo Visma), stage winner Alejandro Valverde (Movistar), and teammate Nairo Quintana, who is only 6 seconds behind Roglic.

But the superman, who finished third in the ultra-tough summit finish at Mas de la Costa, said he was not worried about Movistar's numerical advantage over the GC leaders or the possibility of Roglic's dominance in the time trial at Pau on stage 10.

"I'm not worried at all. I have a great team and I'm in great shape," Lopez insisted to reporters.

"There are a lot of mountain climbs and big gaps in the stages, but we know there will be gaps in the time trial as well. We have a long way to go."

Superman recognized that "the strongest riders in the Vuelta are the ones who were there today."

"But we have a long way to go, so let's stay calm." We want to enjoy being in first place while we can."

Lopez was tight-lipped about naming one of his three closest GC rivals as the most dangerous, although he did take the lead and drop his rival, albeit by only 12 seconds, at the summit finish of the Jabalambre on stage 5, but he said, "It was different from today and we were all equally strong on that climb," he recognized.

"But the climb today [stage 7] was more explosive for Valverde, because three of his rivals were up there too."

Lopez was more optimistic about his chances on Sunday's Andorra stage.

"It's the type of stage I like, with a lot of endurance and long, hard climbs with no recovery time in between.

"Andorra has been good to me in past races and I hope it will be the same for this one.