Vuelta a Espana: Lopez climbs to victory on stage 15

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Miguel Lopez (Astana) won his second stage of the Vuelta a España, soloing in to win at Alto Hoya de la Mora on Sunday's stage 15. Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha), who jumped from the favourites' group near the end, was second, with Wilco Kelderman (Sunweb) third.

Chris Froome, who finished fifth, built up his overall lead over Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain Merida), now 1:01 down. Zakarin’s attack moved him up to third at 2:08, with Kelderman falling to fourth at 2:11.

The Sky rider’s overall lead was never endangered on the difficult mountainous stage. A break was allowed to get away, but it shattered on the first climb, as did the peloton. From there, a variety of riders moved to the front and sought their luck. Adam Yates (Orica Scott) took off alone on the closing climb and looked to have it locked up, but Lopez bridged across to him, and the Briton seemed to abruptly run out of energy.

Alberto Contador (Trek-Segafredo) also put in a glorious acceleration, and he was joined by Lopez in his attack. They had a lead of up to a minute and a half over the ever-smaller Froome group, but the younger Colombian rider jumped again, with Contador having nothing left to answer with. The Trek-Segafredo rider finished at 1:25.

"It's been a magnificent day. With all the work the team did, the team has been up to the task," Lopez said. "Today we decided to attack with Contador. When Contador went, I went with him, but I had some doubts because it was a pretty long and demanding climb. With a final at above 2,000 metres it was really hard. So I had my doubts – but I found myself with the necessary strength and here we are."

How it unfolded

Stage 15 was short but most definitely not sweet, with many metres of climbing and a fearsome mountaintop finish. In addition, the temperatures were high enough that the time limit for finishing was extended.

As expected, the race got off to a nervous start, with multiple unsuccessful attempts to form a break. It was 30 kilometres before a break finally established itself in two instalments.

Cofidis riders Stephane Rossetto and Anthony Perez were joined by Nelson Oliveira (Movistar) in an initial break of three, and within a few kilometres they were joined by Matteo Trentin (QuickStep Floors), Edward Theuns (Trek-Segafredo), Tom Van Asbroek (Cannondale-Drapac), Sander Armee (Lotto Soudal), and Lluis Mas (Caja Rural).

This group worked and pulled away to a gap of more than two minutes. The intermediate was soon reached, with green jersey Trentin first across the line to add some points to his total.

All three of the day’s climbs came in the final 70 kilometres, and the leaders had about two and a half minutes in hand as they started up the category 1 Alto de Hazallanas, a climb of 16.3 km with an average gradient of 5.5%, but also with stretches of 16.7 and 18.3% along the way.

Astana led the peloton and continued to keep the break on a short leash, with the gap dropping on the ascent.

The group fell apart as the gradient increased. Behind them, Peter Stetina (Trek-Segafredo) took off, and was soon joined by Adam Yates (Orica Scott) and Romain Bardet (AG2R La Mondiale). King of the mountains Davide Villella (Cannondale-Drapac) was dropped on the climb.

Up front, Rossetto ground his way up alone in the lead, with Armee the only one to keep him in sight. The two finally joined forces.

The peloton was shattered on this first climb, with Nicolas Roche (BMC) amongst those dropped. With 58 km to go, the two leaders had two minutes on the greatly-reduced peloton, and 1:15 over a new group of Steven Kruijswijk (LottoNL-Jumbo), Yates, Bardet and Oliveira.

Soon Armee was alone in the lead, and he was first over the top of the Hazallanas, 1:23 ahead of the Bardet group and 3:13 ahead of the peloton.

A long descent followed, on which the Bardet group caught Rossetto. The second climb was the category 1 Alto del Purche, 8.5km long, with an average gradient of 8%.

The chasers Bardet, Kruijswijk and Adam Yates caught and passed Armee with 27.5 km to go. Back in the pack, Contador attacked on the ascent, quickly joined by Astana’s Miguel Lopez, while Froome and Sky did not react. They pulled away quickly, soon catching and passing the tiring Armee.

Up front, Yates went off on his own. Contador and Lopez caught Bardet, and they moved up to within 50 seconds of the Yates, while the red jersey group trailed by some 1:30.

Yates easily won the mountain points, with Kruijswijk second, 33 seconds back. Bardet led the Contador group over at 1:10 and the peloton only 30 seconds later.

There was no descent before starting up the next climb, the Alto Hoya de la Mora. The relentless HC climb had an average gradient of 5.6%, with a maximum of 10%.

The Contador group was losing time on Yates, but more importantly, gaining time on Froome and the peloton. They soon caught Kruijswijk, and the gap over the peloton grew from one minute to nearly a minute and a half.

Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida) attacked from the red jersey group with 12 kilometres remaining, but he never extended his lead before 50 metres or so and was forced to relent within two kilometres as Mikel Nieve led the chase.

The Contador group gap was 1:15 with 10km left to climb, and the field, continually shrinking, at 2:04, catching Nibali and De Gendt again along the way.

Kruijswijk was dropped with some 6.5km left to go, and even Yates was beginning to show signs of weakness. With 6 km to go, the Contador group was only 46 seconds back, with the field at 1:22

Lopez attacked out of the group. Contador gritted his teeth and caught Bardet, but Lopez was out of reach, and he moved up quickly towards Yates. Contador and Bardet continued up together, with the peloton coming closer and closer.

With just over 4 km to go, Lopez caught Yates and soon left him at a virtual standstill. Lopez saw his second stage victory beckoning and went on, as Contador and Bardet were caught by the field of only about 15 riders.

Lopez had about a minute in a relatively flat section just before the final km started. The expected attack out of the Froome group came from Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha), and the acceleration saw Contador dropped from that group.

Lopez was able to easily cruise in to the finish line to take the stage win. Zakarin quickly pulled away from the favourites’ group, crossing the finish line 36 seconds later, moving himself up in the GC.

Kelderman pulled away to finish third at 45 seconds, with Esteban Chavez (Orica Scott) fourth just ahead of Froome, both at 0:47. Nibali lost six seconds on Froome in the finale, and now trails by 1:01 on the general classification. Zakarin moves up to third overall, 2:08 down on the Briton, who will look to extend his advantage when the Vuelta resumes with a time trial in Logroño on Tuesday.

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