2019 Vuelta a España Stage 15 Results & Recap
Stage 15 of the 2019 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
Kuss wins stage 15
Sepp Kuss continued Jumbo Visma’s domination of this year’s Vuelta a Espana, winning stage 15 in a solo move out of the breakaway. The young American won his first grand tour stage on the Puerto del Acebo 39 seconds ahead of Ruben Guerreiro.
“It’s pretty big I guess,” Kuss said after the stage. “Obviously it hasn’t quite sunk in but it’s an incredible day. We knew Astana and Movistar would try to put some guys in the break. When I saw Soler and Izagirre go, I followed because they are strong riders that could help for some tactical play later. When the gap went out, it was enough to go for the stage win. I knew the first kilometres of the climb were the hardest so I tried to be in a good position from the bottom.
I felt really good and I wanted to ride my own rhythm, not play mind games. As a team, we’ve shown we have the numbers when it’s a selected group. We’re always where we need to be. And we have the strongest rider, that’s what’s the most important! I think the passion of the fans is what makes La Vuelta so special. They’re enthusiastic in your good days and also when you have a bad day, giving you pushes up the climbs when you’re 30 minutes behind. The fans are really special and that’s what makes cycling such an incredible sport.”
Kuss’s teammate and race leader, Primoz Roglic put more time in his rivals, powering to the top of the final climb with Alejandro Valverde (Movistar Team).
“Sepp was obviously really strong and it was really nice to have him take the stage win,” Roglic said. “I had good legs myself so it was ok [for Kuss not to wait]. I just followed [when Valverde attacks]. He is the closest rival and when he goes, it’s nice if I can follow. It was a hard attack but it went ok for me. It was a really hard climb, full gas all day and we just try to do our best. There are still some hard days to come. We have to maintain the focus with the whole team.”
At the start of the stage, the tempo was high in anticipation of four category 1 climbs. Movistar was on the offensive, and after 54 kilometres into the race, a group of 17 cleared the peloton. They were: Marc Soler (Movistar Team), Quentin Jauregui (AG2R La Mondiale), Ion Izagirre (Astana Pro Team), Mark Padun (Bahrain-Merida), Pawel Poljanski (Bora-Hansgrohe), Lawson Craddock (EF Education First), Sander Armée (Lotto-Soudal), Tsgabu Grmay (Mitchelton-Scott), Ben O’Connor (Team Dimension Data), Tao Geoghegan Hart, Vasil Kiryienka (Team Ineos), Sepp Kuss (Jumbo-Visma), Dani Navarro, Ruben Guerreiro (Katusha-Alpecin), José Herrada (Cofidis), Óscar Rodríguez, Sergio Samitier (Euskadi-Murias).
The gap held at about three minutes for the majority of the race and over the rest of the climbs, save for the finale, when Jumbo Visma launched Kuss off the front in pursuit of Sergio Samitier, who attacked out of the breakaway with 17km to go. \n
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