The Spanish rider born in Jaca, Pablo Castrillo of Kern Pharma, won the legendary Cuitu Negru and added his second victory in the Iberian round. Ben O’Connor saved the red one more day.
The fifteenth stage of La Vuelta a España was set in the objectives of the riders in the general classification. 143 kilometres with start in the Asturian town of Infiesto and finish in Valgrande Pajares Cuitu Negru, the mountain pass with the steepest gradient in the Iberian round, 18.9 kilometres at an average of 7.1%.
The race had many interested in getting into the breakaway and from the start the pace was set. Kasper Asgreen and Txomin Juaristi were the first to take the lead from the adventurers, then Vine, Frigo, Gregaard, Poole, Champion and Castrillo joined in.
Meintjes and Le Berre left the main group and set off to link up with the front. The South African succeeded, becoming part of the breakaway while Le Berre was caught again by the main peloton.
The climb to Colladiella put everything in a totally different order from that moment on, the leading group became larger and the peloton of favourites was noticeably reduced, the fight for the stage and the general classification was on the cards, although the lead was not so great.
The second pass through Colladiella was already making it clearer who could reach Cuitu Negru with a real chance of competing. Seven riders survived the first mountains and had a gap of almost three minutes with the Roglic group.
Sivakov, Vine, Castrillo, Pacher, Küng, Vlasov and Armirail were the riders who made up the final breakaway, which would start climbing towards the Cuitu Negru looking to take the glory of the day. Roglic, behind, changed bikes and would start the climb with a mountain set-up adjusted to the mountain pass.
Soudal QuickStep was the team that controlled the pace of the main peloton, it seemed that Mikel Landa had a prepared attack and that it would be a day of joy for ‘landismo’, O’Connor still remained in the main group with ease while the easier slopes of the final port were climbed.
Sivakov Castrillo and Vlasov changed pace and slowly went their own way, the three of them still dreaming of the stage. With three to go, Pablo Castrillo stopped on his pedals and opened a gap with Vlasov and Sivakov, he wanted to go for the target on the Cuitu Negru.
His lead over the group of favourites was just under two minutes at that point. Behind them, Red Bull was already imposing the conditions and Lipowitz’s impeccable work left Roglic alone, who now set his sights on the leaders. The Slovenian was running loose and behind them they looked at each other helplessly, unable to keep up with him.
Castrillo was shaking his head from side to side while he looked back incessantly. Roglic meanwhile was pedaling hard, with a kilometer and a half to go Castrillo had 94 seconds in his favor, the crowd was urging him on with their encouragement and the Kern Pharma in full force was pushing the machine into the distance.
The rider from Jaca insisted on going all out in search of the stage, 82 seconds in his favour were counted in the ‘Flame Rouge’ but suddenly, in the middle of the fog, the highly experienced Vlasov appeared, stood beside him and, with his mouth open from the effort, fought tooth and nail with Castrillo, who did not give up.
Enric Mas jumped out of the group of favourites and got on Roglic’s wheel, he passed by one side and the Slovenian clung to his wheel, O’Connor gritted his teeth to not give up too much time and stay one more day dressed in red, honouring the race and thus reaching the rest day.
Pablo Castrillo of Kern Pharma finally crossed the finish line alone. In the fog he looked back and saw that he had enough distance to celebrate. He raised his right hand to the sky and took the Cuitu Negru. Alexander Vlasov of Red Bull – BORA – hansgrohe was second and third place went to Pavel Sivakov of UAE Team Emirates.
Movistar Team’s Enric Mas came in ahead of Primoz Roglic with the same time. The Slovenian would later be penalized and lose 20 seconds.
We will expand…
Results:
Fernando Estupiñán
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