Carlos Barredo (Quick Step) won the fifteenth stage of the Vuelta a España between Solares and Lagos de Covadonga. The Spanish climber escaped alone on the famous climb and soloed away to the finish, 1’07” ahead of Nico Sijmens (Cofidis), with Martin Velits (HTC-Columbia) in third, 1’43 behind.
After yesterday’s return to the mountains, the Vuelta headed towards the summit finish widely regarded as the Alpe d’Huez of Spain. With nothing remotely resembling a hill in the first 170km of the course, the fifteenth stage was open to breakaways from non-climbers; the final climb’s gradients, averaging 7% but rising to 15%, meant that it would take a real climber to win the stage.
“Winning here in Lagos de Covadonga in the Asturias is a dream come true for me,” said Barredo. “My grandparents’ hometown is near here and I’ve been riding on this climb, accompanied by my father, ever since I was a child. I know this climb so well that at a point I was afraid I’d overdo it with my sprint away from the breakaways, so I tried to adequately use my remaining forces. This is a very hard climb but I took advantage of the points that I knew could favour me, in order to then push harder and get to the finish line alone.
“I wasn’t at my best when I started the Vuelta,” he explained, “but it was a good choice to get to best form little by little. Now I am doing great, and I the next few stages I hope I can go on battling for a win. I want to dedicate this important victory to my family and myself. This success is also a special gift to all the team, and all the riders who are here with me at the Vuelta.”
The stage also saw a change in the weather. When the race started in the south two weeks ago the peloton suffered under temperatures of more than 40 degrees centigrade; today’s conditions were more typical of the north east of the country: barely rising above 20 degrees and punctuated by a number of showers.
The first hour of the stage were dominated by unsuccessful escape attempts, including moves that included race leader Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas-Doimo), mountains leader David Moncoutié (Cofidis), former race leader Philippe Gilbert (OmegaPharma-Lotto) and Christian Vande Velde (Garmin-Transitions).
Eventually, after 62km, a group of sixteen riders got away; Gilbert was present once more, as well as David Arroyo (Caisse d’Epargne), but from this group the final breakaway of six emerged. They were: Barredo, Sijmens and Velits, along with Greg Van Avermaet and Olivier Kaisen (both OmegaPharma-Lotto) and Pierre Cazaux (FDJ).
Once the break was established the peloton sat up and allowed the six riders to get away; by the 100km point they led by more than 7 minutes and reached its maximum of 9’35” after 136km, with just over 50km to go.
With two members of OmegaPharma in the break, team classification leader Caisse d’Epargne began to work on the front to bring down the break’s advantage. With 20km to go, just 8km from the base of the climb to Lagos de Covadonga, the sextet still led by 8’10”, so Xacobeo-Galicia joined the chase.
As the leaders hit the base of the climb their lead stood at 7’14”. Velits was the first to make a move against the non-climbers in the group; he was followed by Barredo who caught and passed the young Slovakian on the steep early kilometres.
Liquigas-Doimo moved to the front on behalf of Nibali and Barredo’s lead over the peloton dropped below six minutes. Riders were constantly dropping off he back of the peloton leaving a group of around 25 riders, including all of the overall contenders.
On the steepest part of the climb, with ramps of up to 15%, Carlos Sastre (Cervélo TestTeam) attacked and third-place-overall Ezequiel Mosquera (Xacobeo-Galicia) went with him. Nibali, whose teammates were all exhausted, tried to follow, but was getting no help from the riders around him.
Mosquera left Sastre behind and continued alone, with a very select group of riders chasing him. Nibali now just had Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha), Peter Velits (HTC-Columbia) and Tom Danielson (Garmin-Transitions), with Sastre, Nicolas Roche (AG2R-La Mondiale) and Fränk Schleck (Saxo Bank) just behind.
Barredo led the group of favourites by just 3’30” by now, but was now 4km from the finish with the hardest part of the climb behind him; his five former companions were now scattered in the road in between.
The Quick Step rider held on to take his first win of the season; Sijmens came in behind him, followed by Martin Velits and the rest of the breakaway. Mosquera was unable to pull out a substantial gap over the favourites group, and by the time he crossed the line he was just 11 seconds ahead of Nibali, Peter Velits and Rodriguez.
Xavier Tondo (Cervélo TestTeam) and Ruben Plaza (Caisse d’Epargne) were tht two biggest losers inside the top ten, losing 1’40” and 6’02” respectively to Nibali. Tondo slipped from fourth to fifth but Plaza slipped from ninth to 18th, ending any chance of a podium finish from the mighty Caisse d’Epargne team.
With Nibali and Rodriguez finishing together, the Italian holds on to his red jersey by a slim 4 second margin; Mosquera is now within 39 seconds of the lead.
Result stage 15
1. Carlos Barredo (Spa) Quick Step
2. Nico Sijmens (Bel) Cofidis @ 1’07”
3. Martin Velits (Svk) HTC-Columbia @ 1’43”
4. Greg Van Avermaet (Bel) OmegaPharma-Lotto @ 2’06”
5. Pierre Cazaux (Fra) FDJ @ 2’10”
6. Olivier Kaisen (Bel) OmegaPharma-Lotto @ 2’12”
7. Ezequiel Mosquera (Spa) Xacobeo-Galicia @ 2’15”
8. Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Liquigas-Doimo @ 2’26”
9. Peter Velits (Svk) HTC-Columbia
10. Joaquim Rodriguez (Spa) Team Katusha
Standings after stage 15
1. Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Liquigas-Doimo
2. Joaquim Rodriguez (Spa) Team Katusha @ 4s
3. Ezequiel Mosquera (Spa) Xacobeo-Galicia @ 39s
4. Peter Velits (Svk) HTC-Columbia @ 2’29”
5. Xavier Tondo (Spa) Cervélo TestTeam @ 2’30”
6. Nicolas Roche (Irl) AG2R-La Mondiale @ 2’47”
7. Fränk Schleck (Lux) Team Saxo Bank @ 2’48”
8. Tom Danielson (USA) Garmin-Transitions @ 3’48”
9. Carlos Sastre (Spa) Cervélo TestTeam @ 4’29”
10. Vladimir Karpets (Rus) Team Katusha @ 5’27”