Pablo Castrillo claims mammoth stage 15 victory atop Cuitu Negru as O'Connor keeps red

Pablo Castrillo (Equipo Kern Pharma) won a hugely dramatic stage 15 of the Vuelta a España, besting Aleksandr Vlasov (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) on the brutal Cuitu Negru climb.

The young Spaniard attacked his fellow breakaway survivors Vlasov and Pavel Sivakov (UAE Team Emirates) just inside the final 3km. 

Despite the Russian tagging him on one of the most biting sections of the climb, he continued to kick on and clawed his way to a second stage win of this Vuelta. 

"That first stage, obviously I was very satisfied," Castrillo said at the finish. "Now it's just another gift for me to win on this climb, it's amazing. We almost thought we were standing still! That last part, I just gave everything to that last attack."

Sivakov crossed the line third, emerging out of the blanket fog at the summit, while a slimmed-down group of GC favourites were split by the hideous gradients on the uppermost slopes of the mountain.

Second-placed Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) powered away from race leader Ben O'Connor (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) but was joined by Enric Mas (Movistar) in the closing kilometre, with the Spaniard beating him to fourth place.

O'Connor finished just outside the top 10 but despite Roglič's efforts the Australian retained his leader's jersey. 

There was even drama after the stage, as O'Connor's newly-trimmed 43-second lead swelled to 1:03 over the Slovenian thanks to a commissaire's decision. Roglič changed his bike shortly before the final climb and was handed a 20 second time penalty for drafting behind his team car as he chased back onto the peloton, leaving him just 19 seconds closer to O'Connor than he had been at the start of the day.

"I guess I've proven those people wrong who thought I'd lose the jersey," O'Connor said at the finish. 

"I had a pretty good day. It's a bit of a shame that I exploded a bit at the end but that's got to be probably one of the most horrible endings to a climb I've ever done. It was really disgusting. You just felt like you were going nowhere, and you couldn't see anything with the fog as well.

"I'm still in the lead, so okay, I'll take it. I'm going to rest tomorrow, try and enjoy it if I can, and then tackle Lagos de Covadonga [on Monday]."

HOW IT HAPPENED

After Saturday’s longest stage of this Vuelta, Sunday was one of the shortest – but by no means sweetest. In fact, the 143km run from Infiesto was a strong contender for one of the toughest days in the saddle of this brutally mountainous Vuelta. 

Starting with a loop featuring two ascents of the category 1 Alto de la Colladiella split by the cat 3 Alto de Santo Emiliano, those three climbs were just the warm-up for the awe-inspiring, precipitously steep HC Cuiti Negru. 

Like Saturday’s stage the pace was frantic from the jump, with scores of riders pushing to get into the breakaway. Kasper Asgreen (Soudal Quick-Step) lit the touchpaper and was joined by an eight-man group including Jay Vine (UAE Team Emirates), Max Poole (dsm-firmenich PostNL) and Marco Frigo (Israel Premier-Tech). Several more moves failed to make it across as the riders rattled through the early stages of the day at around 50km/h.

But on the first climb up the Alto de la Colladiella the race completely exploded. Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates) continued to bring mayhem to the Vuelta with a tactically baffling decision to chase down his team-mate, bringing with him stage 13 winner Michael Woods (Israel-Premier Tech).

That triggered another move as Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates) entered the fray on the punishing slopes of the Colladiella, which reached highs of 14%. Yates was quickly marked by Roglič’s team-mate Dani Martinez and Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale foot soldier Valentin Paret-Peintre, and while the move didn’t stick, it left a distinctly slimmed-down peloton powering up the climb. 

Vine took the maximum KOM points atop the Colladiella from Frigo and Poole, and after a few skirmishes on the descent the breakaway was caught. It was back to square one with 95km to go – albeit with significant energy expended all round and a heavily reduced peloton.

A high-quality 17-man breakaway then formed at the halfway mark of the stage, on the Alto de Santo Emiliano, with UAE Team Emirates, Decathlon and Bora-Hansgrohe all well represented. Vine, Soler, Pavel Sivakov, Armirail, Paret-Peintre, Martinez and Aleksandr Vlasov helped drag the gap out to nearly 2:30, while Mikel Landa set his Soudal Quick-Step outfit to chase them down and defend his fifth place from Sivakov. 

Vine took maximum points atop both Santo Emiliano and the second ascent of the Colladiella to move level with Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) in the mountains classification. 

The UAE train, now having lost Soler, continued to pile the pressure on and hold their advantage at around two minutes. The team’s plan appeared to be to push Sivakov – who started the day 13th – up the overall standings or to go for the stage win, although the peloton continued to keep them on a fairly tight leash. 

Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ) attempted to sprint for the intermediate points in Pola de Lena but was frustrated by an out-of-place UAE team car, which (perhaps inadvertently) secured the points for Sivakov. The reduced seven-man breakaway pulled their lead out to three minutes as they hit the official start of Cuitu Negru, where Vine finally pulled off. 

Back in the bunch and with Cuitu Negru looming above them, Roglič initially looked to be the victim of a second untimely mechanical in as many days as he changed his bike. It soon became clear this was a planned change as a pair of team-mates (and the team car) eased him back up the road.

ONTO THE FINAL CLIMB

Towering over the Asturias, Cuitu Negru was technically an 18.9km climb but the road began to pitch upward another 21km before its official start, and only got steeper the higher the riders climbed. Averaging 7.4%, the gradients often hit double digits and peaked at a hideous 24% on its leg-sapping uppermost slopes. 

On the (comparatively) gentle lower slopes, averaging around 8%, the breakaway was soon thinned down to an elite trio of Sivakov and his passengers Vlasov and Castrillo. The peloton too was losing numbers with Martinez forced out the back and O’Connor reduced to just one teammate, Clément Berthet. 

Quick-Step continued to drive the pace on the bunch but only clawed back around ten seconds in the opening 10km of the climb. But as the terrain became even tougher, the blistering pace and unrelenting nature of the stage started to take its toll on the escapees as seconds began to slip away.

The first attack from the race favourites came from Landa, but both O’Connor and Roglič matched his kick, and the cat-and-mouse games began in the elite, thinned-down group of GC riders. 

Inside the final 3km the gradients pitched up to their very steepest and fog enveloped the ski station atop Cuitu Negru. Home favourite Castrillo had looked ragged for kilometres but appearances were deceiving as he launched a long-range attack, to the huge cheers of the crowds amassed at the side of the road. The Spaniard built up nearly 20 seconds on his former companions, dragging himself up the mountain as if moving through treacle. 

Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) towed the GC group up the biting 24% section and only a composed-looking Roglič could follow him into the mist, with O’Connor dropping a few bike-lengths back down to the remaining favourites. 

Roglič soon left Lipowitz behind and opened up 15 seconds on O’Connor, but as the favourites were scattered all over the mountainside Mas bridged up to him. A few hundred metres up the climb Vlasov loomed out of the fog behind Castrillo having cast the suffering Sivakov aside, and the two battled through the steepest sections with both looking utterly spent.

But it was Castrillo who dug deep to find an extra reserve of energy, powering clear of Vlasov to win by 12 seconds, with Sivakov half a minute back. Roglič tagged Mas’ wheel at the finish with Sepp Kuss, David Gaudu, Mathias Skjelmose and Lipowitz all finishing strongly to move up the standings, Lipowitz leapfrogging Carlos Rodríguez into the white jersey. 

The stage was monumental and dramatic, but ultimately not as race-defining as had perhaps been expected, and Roglič's late bike change caused him more harm than good. Commissaires spotted him drafting behind his team car on the way back to the bunch and awarded him a 20 second penalty as a result, leaving O'Connor with just over a minute's gap on his rivals going into the final week. 

VUELTA A ESPAÑA STAGE 15 RESULTS: INFIESTO > VALGRANDE-PAJARES CUITU NEGRU (143KM)

1. Pablo Castrillo (Esp) Equipo Kern Pharma, in 3:45:51
2. Aleksandr Vlasov (Rus) Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe +12s
3. Pavel Sivakov (Fra) UAE Team Emirates, +31s
4. Enric Mas (Spa) Movistar, +1:04
5. Primož Roglič (Slo) Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, same time
6. Mattias Skjelmose (Den) Lidl-Trek, +1:09
7. Richard Carapaz (Ecu) EF Education-Easypost, +1:13
8. Sepp Kuss (USA) Visma-Lease a Bike, +1:22
9. Mikel Landa (Esp) Soudal Quick-Step, +1:27
10. David Gaudu (Fra) Groupama-FDJ, +1:37

GENERAL CLASSIFICATION AFTER STAGE 15

1. Ben O'Connor (Aus) Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale, in 60:19:22
2. Primož Roglič (Slo) Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, +1:03
3. Enric Mas (Esp) Movistar, +2:23
4. Richard Carapaz (Ecu) EF Education-EasyPost, +2:44
5. Mikel Landa (Esp) Soudal Quick-Step, +3:05
6. Florian Lipowitz (Ger) Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, +4:33
7. David Gaudu (Fra) Groupama-FDJ, +4:39
8. Carlos Rodríguez (Esp) Ineos Grenadiers, +4:40
9. Mattias Skjelmose (Den) Lidl-Trek, +4:51
10. Pavel Sivakov (Fra) UAE Team Emirates, +5:12