Vuelta a España: Wout van Aert wins stage 15 from a five-rider breakaway

Wout van Aert repaid excellent work form his Visma-Lease a bike team on Sunday out-sprinting a group of five escapees to win the team’s fifth stage of this year’s Vuelta a España in Córdoba on stage 15.

After controlling the group for much of the last five kilometres, Van Aert followed an early sprint from Thibau Nys (Lidl-Trek), then powered clear of his compatriot to take his second stage of the race. Alessandro Romele (XDS-Astana) overtook the Belgian to take second place, Nys finishing third.

The shortened stage was chaotic throughout, Van Aert’s team refusing to allow any breakaway to properly establish a lead, and the winning move only went clear on the descent from the last of two classified climbs, around 35km for the line. They then worked well to hold off a concerted chase for another group of 12.

With their five stage wins and the way they have controlled the stages they targeted, Visma-Lease a Bike have been very impressive at this Vuelta and Sunday’s stage was no different.

"We tried to surprise the bunch, we took control the whole day, and we were still there with a few strong, strong guys to help us," Van Aert explained.

"I knew people would not expect that we would choose the attack and I smelled the moment there on the intermediate sprint. With Matthew [Brennan] behind there was no risk at all to give it a try because we always had a good option in the bunch. That was how I like to race.

"It was a bit difficult," he said of all the attacks in the final. "My Belgian companions they were really strong and helped very well, also Romele from Astana, but I think Leknessund he gambled a bit for his teammate that was in the in the back, so we we expect an attack from him. But they started up quite late, in the last few kilometres, I just wanted to keep it together and make sure it was a sprint."

There was no change in the GC, as Enric Mas (Movistar) finished with his rivals 2:44 back in the peloton.

A short stage made for aggressive racing

Stage 15 might have started in Palma del Río and finished in Córdoba as planned, but extreme high temperatures forced organisers to invoke the Extreme Weather Protocol, and the day was reduced from 189.7km to just 110.2. This reduction also reduced the amount of climbing, with one of the slated third-category climbs removed. The race took almost the most direct route between start and finish, though with the searing heat the remaining 1,797m of vertical ascent would be plenty for some.

The race started in predictably hectic fashion, with plenty of riders trying to get up the road and every team looking to Van Aert’s Visma-Lease a Bike to control after the Dutch squad had already won four stages.

Eleven riders were soon up the road, and Visma allowed them their heads for a little while, letting them build ahead of one minute.

Frederik Wandahl (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), Ivo Oliveira (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), Xabier Azparren (Pinarello-Q36.5), Enzo Paleni (Groupama-FDJ United), Ethan Hayer (Soudal-QuickStep), Andreas Leknessund (UNO-X Mobility), Rudy Porter (Jayco-AlUla), Alastair MacKellar (EF Education-EasyPost), Fabian Weiss (Tudor Pro Cycling), Reuben Thompson (Lotto-Intermarché) and Gijs Leemreize (Picnic-PostNL) were held at that one minute gap, though, Cofidis helping Visma with the pace setting in the bunch.

The leaders’ advantage never increased, though, the day’s first climb, the Puerto de la Forestal not helping, their lead dropping to less than 30 seconds over the top. While they were then allowed a handful of extra seconds, the gap remained under one minute.

UAE Team Emirates-XRG later upped the pace on an unclassified climb, stretching the peloton out and bringing the break even closer, and though they quickly sat up and melted back into the stretched out bunch, Michael Gogl (Alpecin-Premier Tech) launched across the gap. By the time the Austrian rider reached the breakaway, four riders had attacked clear, before Leknessund attacked that sub group and forged on alone, the rest of the race spread across the parched Spanish mountains.

The Norwegian rider crested the final classified climb of the day alone, though on the descent Ramses Debruyne (Alpecin-Premier Tech) caught him, but, with the peloton only 25 seconds behind more would follow. It was then that Van Aert bridged across and, with 30km to go, a group of five formed, Thibau Nys (Lidl-Trek) and Alessandro Romele (XDS-Astana) joining Debruyne, Leknessund and Van Aert.

For a while the race seemed to settle, the much reduced peloton replenishing drinks, but sure enough it didn’t take long for another group to attack with the intention of bridging to the leaders.

They didn’t quite make it though and, as the race descended towards the finish in Córdoba, they settled at one minute behind, with the peloton a further minute down.

The run into the finish saw the chasing group lose even more time, and with 5km it was clear the leading quintet would fight for the race win.

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