Sentimental finish for Barredo at Vuelta: a stage 15 recap
Sunday’s stage 15 of the Vuelta a Espana took the peloton on a 187km trek from Solares to a summit finish at Lagos de Covadonga. Carlos Barredo, for Team Quick Step, leapt ahead of his five breakaway companions at the foot of the final climb.
"I got my first road bike as the result of a bet I made with my father, who told me that if I could ride from our house to Lagos de Covadonga and back on my mountain bike, he'd buy me a road bike," said Barredo. "Today, so many years later, I've won here. That's why today is the greatest win of my career from a sentimental point of view."
The breakaway riders scattered on the climb for an unusually spaced out result. The first 65 riders to complete the stage all had unique times from one another; after that, groups larger than two or three riders finished together. Barredo won the stage 1:07 ahead of Nico Sijmens and 1:43 ahead of Martin Velits, while the remaining breakaway riders each finished a few more seconds behind.
"Those two guys were just stronger on the climb, so I can only be happy with my result," said current Slovakian time-trial champion Martin Velits. "Last year, I took part in a breakaway at the Vuelta, too, but I only finished sixth, so I'm improving."
Ezequiel Mosquera nearly caught the last of the leaders, finishing in seventh, only three seconds behind the scattered breakaway, after a bitter struggle to build a gap ahead of the overall leader Vincenzo Nibali. Nibali finished in eighth, 11 seconds behind Mosquera, at the head of a three-man group including Peter Velits and Joaquin Rodriguez.
"I didn't make the same mistake today as I did in Andorra of following Mosquera and burning myself up," said Nibali. "I just looked to keep my overall lead. I want to live it day by day."
Mosquera and the trio that followed him make up the top-four riders in the general classification, but not in that order. Nibali leads, with Rodriguez four seconds behind, Mosquera 39 behind, and Peter Velits 2:29 behind.
"I've managed to stay with the best climbers: Nibali and Rodriguez," said Peter Velits (who is the brother of Martin). "I moved up again on GC, it's great! It couldn't be a better Vuelta for me so far. To profit from Igor Anton's crash and other injured riders like Bruseghin is not the way I wanted to move up on GC, but I guess this is cycling.”
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