2024 Vuelta a España Stage 15 Results & Recap
Stage 15 of the 2024 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
Castrillo Takes Victory on Hellacious Climb
Pablo Castrillo dropped his breakaway companions Pavel Sivakov and Aleksandr Vlasov as the Cuitu Negru became extremely steep in the last 3 kilometres. Vlasov caught him with 800 metres to go, but the Spaniard dug deep to pull away again and solo to his second victory of the week. Ben O'Connor limited his losses to retain the red jersey.
“The truth is I didn’t expect it," Pablo Castrillo of Kern Pharma said. "This morning, I came with the intention to make the break and see how it would go, but I didn’t expect to get there in a position to win. The first victory was unbelievable but to get a second one is a dream. I think it’s the best Vuelta possible. I don’t know what else to say.”
Asgreen and Juaristi were the riders to open a gap. Sheehan, Gregaard, Thompson, and Soto rejoined them. Vine, Frigo, Champion and Castrillo made it eight at the front as Juaristi and Thompson were dropped. Soto couldn't follow either.
Poole tracked the leaders down after 20 kilometres of action while Meintjes bridged across on the Alto de la Colladiella. The leaders reached the summit 30 seconds ahead of the GC group. Vine was the first to crest the summit.
That marks the beginning of a phase when attacks came from all sides. Vine took the most mountain points on the Alto de Santo Emiliano and climbed the Alto de la Colladiella for the second time in a group of around thirty attackers.
On the ascent, the lead group disintegrated. Again, Vine was the first rider at the summit. His companions at that moment were Pavel Sivakov, Óscar Rodríguez, Bruno Armirail, Aleksandr Vlasov, Quentin Pacher, Ion Izagirre, and Pablo Castrillo. The peloton trailed by almost 3 minutes.
Vine emptied the tank until the base of the Cuitu Negru, and then he was done. Sivakov started to pull, and 4 kilometres up the mountain, there were two riders left on his wheel, Vlasov and Castrillo.
The gap fell from 3 to 2 minutes on the finish climb. Then Landa accelerated in the GC group. Only O’Connor, Roglic, Mas, Yates, Lipowitz, Gaudu, and Carapaz could follow his move.
Castrillo struck once the ascent steepened within the last 3 kilometres. Lipowitz sped up in the GC group with Roglic on his wheel. After being launched, the Slovenian set off alone—that is, for a moment, as Mas regained contact.
Vlasov got back to Castrillo’s wheel in the last 800 metres. But the Spaniard dug deep to distance him and clawed his way to his second win of the week.
Going into the final kilometer, Mas dropped Roglic, and the Slovenian managed to rejoin later. They crossed the line together, 38 seconds ahead of O’Connor. The Australian retained the red jersey, although he saw his main rivals closing in again.
“Yes, I was optimistic today," O'Connor said. "I guess I’ve proven wrong the people who expected me to 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 gotta be one of the most horrible endings to a climb that I’ve ever done; it was disgusting! It was kind of only one attack, and that was Primoz [Roglic]; super impressive, then it was very much man against the man that climb. You just felt like you were going nowhere, you couldn’t see anything with the fog as well. It was rough. I’m still in the lead, so I’ll take it. I’m gonna rest tomorrow, try to enjoy it if I can and then tackle Lagos de Covadonga on Tuesday. I’m proud. It’s 10 days now. It’s pretty special; it means almost half of the course. I can just be happy with myself, happy with the boys and I think it’s really a magical moment for myself.”
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