photo credits @ La Vuelta
Pablo Castrillo (Equipo Kern Pharma) upped his tally in this year’s Vuelta a España, after winning today’s stage 15 in a two-up battle against Aleksandr Vlasov atop the Cuitu Negru.
The Spanish rider rode clear of the breakaway 3 kilometers from the summit to claim his second stage victory, while Vlasov managed to close the gap in the final kilometer of the climb.
From there, Castrillo and Vlasov battled side-by-side over the final 900 meters of the climb, with the Russin rider eventually ceding along the steepest 20% slopes.
Meanwhile, 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 2 kilometers from the finish.
Earlier, Jay Vine (UAE Team Emirates), Kasper Asgreen (T-Rex Quick-Step), Marco Frigo, Riley Sheehan (Israel Premier Tech), Jonas Gregaard (Lotto Dstny), Max Poole (DSM-Firmenich-PostNL), Ion Izagirre (Cofidis) and Castrillo (Kern Pharma) lead over the summit of the first ascent of the day, the Alto de la Colladiella. But they’re caught by a small chase effort with 95 kilometers to go.
From there, attacks kept flying, with some 21 riders breaking clear along the second ascent of the day, the Alto de Santo Emiliano.
However, the peloton being led by T-Rex Quick-Step didn’t give them much room, prompting seven riders in the break to attack along the second ascent of the Alto de la Colladiella.
With Vine hard at work at the bottom of the final climb, the escapees had opened up a sizeable gap of around 3 minutes on the mighty Cuitu Negru.
As Vine pulled off the front, Pavel Sivakov set a rapid pace, with only Vlasov and Castrillo able to follow him.
Behind them, the GC group exploded, with Mattia Cattaneo (T-Rex Quick-Step) bringing the leader’s gap to around 2 minutes with 6 kilometers to go.
With 1 kilometer to go, Castrillo attacked, with Vlasov quickly bridging the gap. But, a series of subsequent attacks from Castrillo eventually dispatched his Russian rival.
In the meantime, Roglič and Enric Mas (Movistar) went mano a mano during the final 3 kilometers, with both riders finishing together, 1’04’’ behind Castrillo and 38’’ ahead of Ben O’Connor.
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