2015 Vuelta a España Stage 20 Results & Recap
Stage 20 of the 2015 Vuelta a España is in the books. The final results and standings are below, followed by our recap of how the race unfolded.
Race Recap
Aru seizes Vuelta lead with stage 20 attack
Ruben Plaza (Lampre-Merida) put in a solo effort of 112 kilometers to win the 20th stage of the Vuelta a Espana. Jose Gonçalves (Caja Rural) was second and Alessandro De Marchi (BMC) third. But the real story took place many minutes back, as Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin) dropped off the podium, as Fabio Aru and his Astana team cleverly dumped the Dutchman to take over the lead.
Aru topped the GC with 1:17 over Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) in second, with Rafal Majka (Tinkoff-Saxo) third at 1:29. Dumoulin fell to sixth, 4:36 down.
Aru and his team attacked on the penultimate climb, and Dumoulin, long without teammates, could not go with them. The other favourites easily went along, and Dumoulin could only watch them go.
Plaza had been part of an early break group, and on the second of four climbs, he took off alone. His gap never got up much above the two minute mark, but his chasers were unable to get close.
Team tactics ruled the day, as Astana showed to its advantage.The Kazakh team had two riders in the break group, who were able to move back and join their captain near the end. It was also a stronger climbing team than the young and relatively inexperience Giant-Shimano team. Dumoulin was alone early on, while Aru had a flock of teammates around him.
Dumoulin was not up to the many climbs, losing the Vuelta lead on the climbs, due to both his own legs and the lack of supporting teammates. But it was the clever Astana tactics which gave him the knock-out punch, shoving him entirely off the podium.
How it unfolded
Four Cat. 1 climbs were on the schedule for the decisive and penultimate stage, with an 11km long descent into the finish.
There were frantic efforts to get into the day’s break group, and the lucky ten were: The 11 riders in the leading group are Rubén Plaza (Lampre-Merida), Olivier Le Gac (FDJ), Adam Hansen (Lotto-Soudal) Jaco Venter (MTN-Qhubeka), Lawrance Warbasse (IAM Cycling), Dani Navarro (Cofidis) Jay McCarthy (Tinkoff-Saxo), José Gonçalves (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA), Eduard Vorganov (Katusha), Miguel Ángel Rubiano (Colombia) and Yukiya Arashiro (Europcar).
Not to be outdone, a huge chase group formed. As the leaders hit the top of the day’s first climb, the Navacerrada, they had 1:06 over the chasers, with the field at 6:32. Le Gac had by then dropped back to the chase group.
Going up the second climb, the Puerto de la Morcuera, Plaza decided to take off on his own and he quickly built up a lead of more than two and a half minutes. The former lead group and the chase group merged into a mini-peloton of some 38 riders.
The group constantly split and reformed over the kilometers. It featured three Movistar riders who could conceivably provide later help to Nairo Quintana and Alejandro Valverde, who came into the stage as fifth and sixth overall. But this did not seem to concern Giant-Alpecin or Astana, as they let the gap grow to some 13 minutes.
Plaza flagged a bit just before the third climb, but seemed to catch his second wind, building the lead of from 1:40 to nearly three minutes. Behind him, various riders tried desperately to break out of the chase group and catch him, but the group was not in the least cohesive and no one was successful.
Twelve minutes back, Astana finally decided it was time to take action, moving to the head of the group. Dumoulin was still near the head of things, but was losing helpers along the way.
Astana then went for its chance, with four km still up the penultimate climb. Mikel Landa took off, followed by Aru, Quintana and Rafal Majka. Dumoulin was distanced at first but soon made his way up to the others. Valverde went with him, but quickly fell back.
Up front, Giovanni Visconti (Movistar) and Alessandro De Marchi had jumped from teh chase group in pursuit of Plaza. With 45km to go, they were 1:34 back, the group around Dumoulin at 10:36 and the peloton 20 seconds back.
The Dumoulin group was a very elite one, with eight riders. In addition to the race leader, it contained Aru, Landa, Quintana, Majka, Joaquim Rodriguez, Esteban Chaves and Mikel Nieve.
Astana kept turning on the speed, hoping to dump Dumoulin and propel Aru into the race lead. But the young Dutchman cooly kept up with no difficulty.
Near the summit, though, Aru, Quintana and Majka took off, at first building a gap to Dumoulin, and he finally dropped back. Both he and Nieve watched the others disappear into the distance, with Dumoulin watching his hoped-for grand tour win vanish.
Matteo Montaguti (AG2R) and Jose Gonçalves (Caja Rural) moved up to join Visconti and De Marchi in pursuit of Plaza.
Dumoulin was not about to admit defeat, though. One of the larger riders, he could use his time trial talent to his advantage. The Aru group started gathering in drop-outs from the former lead group, including, dangerously, Luis Leon Sanchez of Astana. The Giant-Alpecin rider had moved up to nine seconds of the group, but then the gap grew again. Dumoulin almost visibly lost hope and he started approaching the minute mark.
Plaza was unaware of or unimpressed by the drama behind him, holding on to his 1:40 lead as he started up the final climb.
Eventually Nieve moved on up away from Dumoulin, who was joined by Andrey Zeits. The demoralized Dumoulin knew that the Astana rider would only hang on his rear wheel.
Quintana saw his chance to move up on GC, and jumped from the Aru group. Majka, celebrating his 26th birthday, went with him to protect his placing. The two quickly put in a gap on the Astana-led group.
Plaza had 1:44 as he crested the day’s final climb, then had only 17 km more in descent and flat before him. Quintana and Majka hit the summit some 4 minutes later, where they met up with both a Movistar and a Tinkoff-Saxo teammate. They soon built up a minute lead.
Rodriquez was not happy to see Majka taking such a lead, which would have knocked the Spaniard down to third in GC. He promptly saw the need to take his share in the lead work.
The Lampre team car moved up to congratulate Plaza at the one-km marker, and from there teh Spaniard was able to smilingly cruise on in to the finish.
Quintana and Majka had made good time, crossing the line on 2:45 later. Aru and his group weren’t far behind, with a wildly rejoicing Aru coming in less than a minute later. Dumoulin still had enough morale to sprint for the finish line, arriving about 7:30 minutes after Plaza.
Get our full coverage of the Vuelta a España and every race we cover with our mobile app! The apps have over 100 additional exclusive features, including our award-winning Time Machine feature that lets you pause/rewind/replay the entire app to sync with delayed race video, integrated Fantasy Cycling, push notifications, an integrated news feed, live GPS tracking, world-class commentary, and our animated interactive maps and profiles.
