Ben O’Connor will enter the ultimate week of this 12 months’s Vuelta a España within the crimson jersey, regardless of his lead narrowing after stage 15 on Sunday.
Spain’s Pablo Castrillo pushed by means of the ache barrier to take Sunday’s stage win, as Slovenian Primož Roglič continued to use the strain on the Australian race chief.
Castrillo (Kern-Pharma) was a part of a number one trio on the gruelling Cuitu Negru climb to the end and made his transfer with three kilometres to the top of the 143-km experience from Infiesto to Valgrane-Pajares.
Within the last kilometre he glanced over his shoulder to see Aleksandr Vlasov (Pink Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) seem by means of the fog, however Castrillo discovered one other burst of vitality to carry off the Russian, with Pavel Sivakov of France coming in third.
“When Vlasov got here in, I took somewhat relaxation, I took somewhat breath and as soon as once more I made a decision to hurry up and I did it,” Castrillo mentioned.
Three-times former champion Roglič (Pink Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) completed fifth, coming in 38 seconds forward of O’Connor (Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale), who now holds a slender 43-second lead going into the ultimate week.
A big breakaway group was whittled all the way down to seven riders by the point they started climbing Cuitu Negru, with 19 kilometres to the end, and a three-minute hole to the peloton, however solely three males have been capable of keep away.
Castrillo, Vlasov and Sivakov (UAE Workforce Emirates) managed to carry a big sufficient lead to make sure the battle for the stage win got here all the way down to this trio, as behind them the peloton crumbled, leaving solely the final classification leaders to the fore.
Roglič managed to drop O’Connor, and whereas he was by no means going to catch the leaders, Sunday was a day when the Slovenian was anticipated to shut in on the crimson jersey, if not take it again, having misplaced it after stage six.
O’Connor dug deep, limiting the injury as a lot as potential, and lives to struggle one other day within the crimson jersey, and can welcome Monday’s relaxation day earlier than tackling the ultimate six levels.
Tuesday’s stage 16 shall be a 181.5-km experience from Luanco to Lagos de Covadonga.
Reuters