La Vuelta 2020: Jasper Philipsen wins mammoth Stage 15, Primoz Roglic retains lead
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Updated 05/11/2020 at 17:06 GMT
Jasper Philipsen won a wind-swept and sodden Stage 15 of La Vuelta on Thursday, outlasting Pascal Ackermann and Jannik Steimle in a reduced sprint finish. No change in the general classification saw Primoz Roglic retain the red jersey from rivals Richard Carapaz and Hugh Carthy with three days of the race to go.
Jasper Philipsen of Belgium and UAE Team Emirates / Celebration / during the 75th Tour of Spain 2020, Stage 15 a 230,8km stage from Mos to Puebla de Sanabria 924m /@lavuelta / #LaVuelta20 / La Vuelta / on November 05, 2020 in Puebla de Sanabria, Spain.
Image credit: Getty Images
Belgian tyro Jasper Philipsen (UAE Team Emirates) outkicked German duo Pascal Ackermann (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Jannik Steimle (Deceuninck Quick-Step) to take his first Grand Tour stage win in a sodden Stage 15 of La Vuelta.
The 22-year-old powered up the sweeping uphill ramp in Puebla de Sanabria to come out on top in the 230.8km stage after the last man standing from a 13-man break was swept up with just under four kilometres remaining.
With Italy's Matteo Cattaneo (Deceuninck Quick-Step) swallowed up after his brave attack ahead of the fifth and final categorised climb, a number of counter-moves fizzed off the front before order was restored ahead of what ended up being a routine, albeit much reduced, bunch sprint to the line.
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Watch as Stage 15 of La Vuelta comes down to a three-way sprint
Heavy rain and dense fog towards the end of the stage saw the race organisers neutralise the GC race, with the times taken with three kilometres remaining – meaning there were no changes in the battle for red with just three days now remaining.
Slovenia's Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) emerged from well over six hours in the saddle to retain his 39-second lead over Ecuador's Richard Carapaz (Ineos Grenadiers), with Briton Hugh Carthy (EF Pro Cycling) a further eight seconds back in third place.
Runner-up in Stage 4 and fourth in Stage 9, Philipsen finally picked up the biggest win of his career after launching his sprint early and holding off both Ackermann and Steimle, with Britain's Alfred Wright (Bahrain-McLaren) and Australia's Dion Smith (Mitchelton-Scott) completing the top five.
"Oh f*ck it's amazing," an emotional Philipsen, shivering in the cold, said afterwards. "I can't describe how happy I am with this victory. It means a lot to me – I've been waiting all the Vuelta for the right moment and today it was unexpected.
"It was a really strong breakaway but with the headwind all day it made it really hard for the front group. In the end I started believing it more and more because in the beginning of the day I never expected it to be a bunch sprint."
The longest stage of the race was played out under foreboding grey skies and into a fierce headwind which forced the organisers into rolling out the riders half an hour early for fear of a late arrival.
Despite these concerns, the peloton gobbled up 42.4km in a zippy opening hour ahead of the first of five third-category climbs as all early attempts at a breakaway were thwarted.
It took almost 60km of attacks before a successful break eventually formed – a 13-man move which went on to build up a maximum lead of over five minutes.
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Guillaume Martin of France and Team Cofidis Solutions Credits Polka Dot Mountain Jersey / during the 75th Tour of Spain 2020, Stage 15 a 230,8km stage from Mos to Puebla de Sanabria 924m /@lavuelta / #LaVuelta20 / La Vuelta
Image credit: Getty Images
The main animators from this baker's dozen were polka dot jersey rivals Guillaume Martin (Cofidis) and Tim Wellens (Lotto Soudal), who passed over the first three climbs in that order as the Frenchman edged closer to an unassailable lead over the Belgian in the king of the mountains competition.
Joining the pair were Rui Costa (UAE Team Emirates), Robert Power and Mark Donovan (Team Sunweb), Alex Aranburu and Luis Leon Sanchez (Astana), Nick Schultz and Robert Stannard (Mitchelton-Scott), Jose Joaquin Rojas (Movistar), Julien Simon (Total Direct Energy) and Jonathan Lastra (Caja Rural-Seguros), as well as that man Cattaneo.
On the fourth categorised climb, Wellens appeared to throw in the towel, the double stage winner not contesting Martin for the points before, a short while later, sitting up from the break to drop back to the peloton.
It was a wise move from the Belgian, with the remaining 12 riders on a hiding for nothing as the weather closed in. As the first drops of rain fell and the wind blew a gale, the peloton collectively reached for its jackets with the road edging up on a gradual false flat towards dense mist and general gloom.
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The peloton riders through a wood during stage 15 of La Vuelta 2020
Image credit: Getty Images
The gap for the dozen leaders was down to one minute as Stannard and Lastra were caught and the first riders – including Sam Bennett of Deceuninck Quick-Step – started to be tailed off the back of the strung-out peloton.
With 30km remaining, on the Alto de Padornelo, Cattaneo sniffed out his chance after failed attempts from Rojas and Donovan to ride clear of the break. Some 557 days since his last pro win, the 30-year-old made light work of the weather and gradient as he opened up a gap that sounded the death-knell for the break.
Behind, Switzerland's Gino Mader attacked from the peloton, caught and passed the fracturing break, before cresting the summit in the mist just over a minute behind the lone leader.
But once Bora-Hansgrohe and UAE Team Emirates combined to lead the chase, Mader's promising but brief cameo came to an end, while Cattaneo's lead following the long, sweeping descent was down to just 30 seconds.
The rangy Italian succumbed to the inevitable with 3.5km remaining and, despite a few unsuccessful attempts from riders to counter, a testing day came to a head with a messy sprint in which Philipsen proved the strongest.
Off to Alpecin-Fenix to ride alongside Mathieu van der Poel for the next two seasons, Philipsen ensured he gave his UAE team a parting gift: on top of winning the Tour de France through Tadej Pogacar, they have now won stages in all three of cycling's major tours during this most unpredictable of seasons.
The Vuelta continues on Friday with another undulating test – the 162km Stage 16 from Salamanca to Ciudad Rodrigo. With two categorised climbs on the menu and a near insurmountable lead in the KOM standings, Frenchman Martin will hope to secure the polka dot jersey.
But while Roglic's grip on green is also very much in the bag, the race for red will come down to the wire – with Friday's penultimate stage concluding on the Alto de la Covatilla and promising a bitter battle between the main GC contenders.
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