Pablo Castrillo (Equipo Kern Pharma) scored his second mountain stage victory of the week at the Vuelta a España, coming out on top in a two-up battle against Aleksandr Vlasov) at the end of a thrilling final kilometre up Cuitu Negru on stage 15.
The Spaniard had gone solo from the breakaway 3km from the finish line and looked set for a second solo stage victory before Vlasov managed to get back across the gap in the final kilometre of the climb.
Castrillo and Vlasov fought a give-and-take, side-by-side battle over the final 900 metres of the climb. The Russian rider eventually ceding on the steepest 20% slopes right at the top to leave Castrillo celebrating another famous victory.
Further back, Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) dealt another blow in the battle for the red jersey, putting yet more time into race leader Ben O'Connor (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) with an attack 2km from the finish, even if he wouldn't yet take over the lead himself.
The Slovenian three-time race winner finished fifth on the stage alongside Enric Mas (Movistar), while O’Connor limited his losses to finish in 11th place, 1:42 behind Castrillo and 38 seconds off Roglič.
The result means that the gap at the top of the standings is now down to 43 seconds, with O’Connor commanding an ever-decreasing lead. Mas lies in third, some distance further away at 2:23 down.
"Yeah, it's optimistic today," O'Connor said after the stage. "But I guess I've proven those people wrongly thought I'd lose the jersey. I had a pretty good day. It's a bit of a shame that I exploded a bit at the end but that's got to be probably one of the most horrible endings to a climb I've ever done. It was really disgusting.
"It was kind of only one attack, and that was Primož, who was super impressive. Then it was very much man against man. You just felt like you were going nowhere, and you couldn't see anything with the fog as well. It was rough.
"I'm still in the lead, so OK, I'll take it. I'm going to rest tomorrow, try and enjoy it, if I can, and then tackle Lagos de Covadonga."
How it unfolded
Stage 15 of the Vuelta a España would take the riders towards another summit finish, with Cuitu Negru (18.9km at 7.4%) playing host to the climax of a 143km stage which would feature 3,800 metres of climbing.
Earlier in the day, two ascents of the first-category Alto de la Colladiella (6.4km at 8.2%) plus a third-category Alto de Santo Emiliano (5.6km at 4.9%) would fill out the profile, though with a long spell in the valley lying ahead of the final climb, the day would be all about Cuitu Negru.
Attacks, as ever, flew from the start, with moves and countermoves coming and going as riders fought to make the break of the day. Names including Kasper Asgreen (Soudal-QuickStep), Michael Woods (Israel-Premier Tech), Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates), and Louis Meintjes (Intermarché-Wanty) were all active at the front, but the kilometres ticked by without a breakaway establishing itself.
As a result, the GC teams go in on the action, too, hoping to seize the occasion and cause chaos where they could. At one point, a four-man could count red jersey contenders Ben O’Connor, Primož Roglič, and Enric Mas among its number, though the move inevitably didn’t work out.
It wasn’t until the race hit the Alto de Santo Emiliano, with 60km of the stage already done, that a breakaway was finally established. The bumper move was made up of 21 riders, with Castrillo and Vlasov up there along with other major names such as the UAE Team Emirates trio of Marc Soler, Pavel Sivakov, and Jay Vine as well as Meintjes, Jack Haig (Bahrain Victorious), and Dani Martínez (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe).
The move took two minutes on the chasing peloton, with Soudal-QuickStep taking up the reins as they worked for team leader and podium hopeful Mikel Landa. Up front, the move would fracture on the day’s penultimate climb, another ride up the Alto de la Colladiella.
There, Meintjes and Haig would join several others in dropping from the front of the race, while the peloton continued on with the break at a manageable distance, still under three minutes.
Heading into the final 40km, on the road to the final climb, the break could count Castrillo, Sivakov, Vlasov and Vine among its number with Stefan Küng, Quentin Pacher (Groupama-FDJ), and Bruno Armirail (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) also there.
Soudal-QuickStep kept on their work at the front, though the Belgian squad didn’t much reduce the break’s advantage, with the move out front having been pulled largely by UAE riders in service of Sivakov.
A quick bike change for Roglič at just over 20km to go was the most dramatic moment in the peloton on the run to the final climb, though it didn’t take long for riders to drop left, right, and centre once the road tilted upwards.
In the end, once the riders came to face the toughest sections of the uphill run to the line, Sivakov, Vlasov, and Castrillo were all that was left of the break, while back down the mountain, the peloton had been reduced to the solo team leaders and GC hopefuls.
Landa launched his attack at 6km to go following the hard work done by his team, though a series of big names were in tow, including those close to the Basque rider. Up the road, the leading trio held a two-minute advantage into the final 5km.
Castrillo, already a breakaway winner on stage 12, sought to be the first to strike a killer blow. He jumped at 3km to go, quickly pulling out 15 seconds on Sivakov and Vlasov. In the peloton, Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe were on the move with Roglič and teammate Florian Lipowitz, leaving O’Connor behind with an attack 2km from the line.
Roglič was joined by Mas in the final run up to the finish, the pair taking time on all their GC rivals if not each other. Towards the top of the mountain road, it was Vlasov who reappeared at the front, coming back to Castrillo to set up a memorable battle for victory.
A tense and dramatic final kilometre saw the pair winch their way up the unbearably steep slopes towards the line, with Castrillo eventually managing to separate himself from his rival and shoot clear to take win number two of the Vuelta a España.
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