OFFICIAL Stage 15 Results

[Laurens De Jong]

Hello, Vuelta a España Gamers!

 

STAGE Grade: B-

 

I rate today’s stage a B. The scenery is still beautiful. We’ve left Asturias and are now in Galicia. No ski lifts here but we finished Monforte de Lemos. There’s a nice train museum there, where you can see the largest remaining roundhouse in Spain. It was clearly visible from the helicopter today.

 

It was an interesting race, watching Mads Pedersen manufacture his own win was incredible. But in the grand scheme of things, a B- is appropriate. Worth watching.

 

Route: 4/5         GC: 0/5             Tactics: 3/5       Sprint: 3/5         Surprises: 1/5

 

 

Question: if there are 45 riders in the front, is it still a breakaway? There were still more riders in the peloton. Then the 45 were the breakaway, okay.

 

Lidl-Trek didn’t seem to care: breakaway or complete peloton. I was thinking: what about Jasper Philipsen? He’s one of the few riders today who can beat Mads Pedersen in the sprint.

 

Jakub Otruba was the first rider to attack, and Lidl-Trek did nothing. After a while, they changed their mind. Pedersen and a dozen riders went after Otruba. That breakaway grew and grew until it was about 50. This was all happening on the first, and hardest, climb of the day.

 

In between the two climbs it was clear that this massive breakaway was decisive. Team Visma| Lease-a-Bike controlled the peloton. Only Visma and Cofidis had no riders in the breakaway. Visma didn’t care and for Cofidis it was too late.

 

Almost too late: Jasper Philipsen and Bryan Coquard tried for almost twenty minutes to bridge to the breakaway. They finally had to give it up, and Mads Pedersen had won the stage.

 

You would think. Jay Vine and Louis Vervaeke attacked before the second climb of the day. For KOM points, probably. But then they stayed away for another 110 kilometers. With the Lidl-Trek riders working behind them, it seemed inevitable they’d be caught. And they were caught, but much later than I thought.

 

Vine and Vervaeke must have been thinking they could win the stage. I can’t think of another reason to stay ahead of a chasing group for that long.

 

Meanwhile, Pedersen took third place in the intermediate sprint. Add those 15 points to the 30 he would get at the finish, and it was a good day for him.

 

A good day and he did a lot of the work himself. A group of seven chasers formed after one of the Spanish flat climbs (5 kilometers at 4%) and this group rejoined Vine and Vervaeke. Pedersen did most of the work because why would the others take him to the front, only to be beaten in the sprint?

 

Pedersen therefore found him in a group of nine riders, and he could beat eight of them in the sprint. This is a difficult race situation. Pedersen’s job is to keep the pace high. If not, then someone from the back will attack. Nobody is going to chase, so Pedersen has to do it himself. Once he catches the attacker, the next rider will attack.

 

Those multiple attacks didn’t happen. Pedersen did keep the pace high, but I also think everyone was tired. Lidl-Trek had kept the pace high all day. And Pedersen can solve these problems all by himself, with his legs.

 

That’s how he won the stage. He went to the front early, opening himself up to an attack from Marco Frigo. Frigo is no Philipsen. Pedersen easily came around Frigo in the final few hundred meters. Pedersen deserved that win, he worked for it, and he got it.

 

Behind him, the peloton was being pulled by the entire Bahrain-Victorious team, followed by the Israel – PremierTech riders. The former were protecting Torsten Træen’s ninth place in the standings from Junior Lecerf, who had been in the breakaway. The latter were riding for Matthew Riccitello, in seventh.

 

The peloton finished thirteen minutes and eight seconds behind Lecerf. Good enough for Riccitello, but Træen dropped a place. And these were cheap minutes for Lecerf to gain in the standings: the entire day, he just hid in the 40+-man breakaway. He worked less than Riccitello, probably!

 

Jake Stewart was in the breakaway. He’s on Team Tadej, the only team that picked him. He’s 25, races for Israel – PremierTech and his specialty is finishing near the front in unimportant stage races. The Tour du Limousin-Périgord - Nouvelle Aquitaine. I recognize the region but not the race. Ewen Costiou won this year’s edition. I don’t know him, either.

 

And I don’t really know Jake Stewart, either. To be fair, he won a stage in this year’s Critérium du Dauphiné. We even had an AAVC Game for that! But I only scored the points, which is done by the queries in my spreadsheet. I wasn’t paying attention to race results.

 

Today I only noticed him because of Team Tadej. He had an argument with his team car. By the time I’m writing this, I can’t remember when in the race that happened, so I can’t look it up. So I don’t know what that was about.

 

He finished twelfth today. In the group of 31 riders that included Lecerf. Like Lecerf, he climbed four places in the general classification: from 143^rd to 139^th.

 

Watch the final kilometer HERE.

Watch the official La Vuelta highlights HERE.

Watch the extended NBC Sports highlights HERE.

Read the TNT Sports report HERE.

 

There were some changes in the standings, two teams trading places. Each time the differences are so small as to be meaningless. It’ll change again on Tuesday. The pairs of teams so affected were, spoiler alert: Team Tadej and Team Josh; Team Samuel and Team Amalia; Team Sam and Team Will; and Team Liz and Team Sylvia.

 

Team Dominic took first place today, including a three-way tie for most points from the stage, most points from classifications all by themselves, and most points overall. Team Charles were second, also tied for most points from the stage. Team Tadej were third.

 

Team Ansel and Team Samuel tied for fourth. Team Samuel tied for most riders in the Top-25 (four). Sixth place was also a tie, between Team Hugo and Team Josh.

 

Eighth place was for Team Sam, who tied for most points from the stage and most riders in the Top-25.

 

Team Liz were ninth and Team Amalia tenth. Three teams missed the boat today: Team Sylvia and Team Will together in eleventh, and Team Grace in thirteenth.

 

Monday is a rest day and then on Tuesday we’ll continue with the climbing. Four categorized climbs, one of them category 1 — 11.2 kilometers at 5.5% It is a summit finish: the last 9.5 kilometers at 5%.

 

I doubt this will be a general classification kind of day. Almost certainly a breakaway, almost certainly with Mads Pedersen. As for the stage win, the way they’ve been racing, this should be another UAE Team Emirates – XRG kind of day. Jay Vine or Juan Ayuso? Today, Vine rode hard all day, Ayuso dropped from the peloton when the pace was getting too much for him. Ayuso, or Marc Soler. Or Marco Frigo!

 

Standings after stage 15:

 

Rank	Name	Points	WAS	MOVES
1	Team Ansel*	2837	1	0
2	Team Charles*	2834	2	0
3	Team Dominic*	2767	3	0
4	Team Hugo*	2724	4	0
5	Team Tadej*	2652	6	1
6	Team Josh*	2646	5	-1
7	Team Grace*	2582	7	0
8	Team Samuel*	2542	9	1
9	Team Amalia*	2535	8	-1
10	Team Sam*	2069	11	1
11	Team Will*	2040	10	-1
12	Team Liz*	1857	13	1
13	Team Sylvia*	1841	12	-1

 

Standings after stage 15 (including adults):

 

10	Team Corsa	2751	9	-1
11	Team Hugo*	2724	11	0
12	Team Chuck	2715	12	0
13	Team Tadej*	2652	14	1
14	Team Josh*	2646	13	-1
15	Team Amelia	2599	16	1
16	Team Corey	2587	17	1
17	Team Grace*	2582	15	-2
18	Team Samuel*	2542	19	1
19	Team Amalia*	2535	18	-1
20	Team Laurens	2531	20	0
21	Team Rob	2443	21	0
22	Team Joe	2383	22	0
23	Team Julie	2318	23	0
24	Team Jonwaine	2305	25	1
25	Team Wes	2273	24	-1
26	Team John	2182	26	0
27	Team Sam*	2069	28	1
28	Team Will*	2040	27	-1
29	Team JB	1986	29	0
30	Team Doug	1871	31	1
31	Team Liz*	1857	32	1
32	Team Sylvia*	1841	30	-2
33	Team Kate	836	33	0

 

Complete breakdown of points from stage 15:

 

Name	STAGE RESULTS	PINK JERSEY	PURPLE JERSEY	BLUE JERSEY	WHITE JERSEY	POINTS/CLASS	TOTAL	PREVIOUS	CUM. TOTAL
Team Amalia*	44	38	8	6	5	57	101	2434	2535
Team Ansel*	73	40	13	12	0	65	138	2699	2837
Team Charles*	77	45	13	7	5	70	147	2687	2834
Team Dominic*	77	48	13	7	5	73	150	2617	2767
Team Grace*	18	43	8	12	0	63	81	2501	2582
Team Hugo*	73	34	13	12	0	59	132	2592	2724
Team Josh*	73	34	13	12	0	59	132	2514	2646
Team Liz*	73	28	9	12	0	49	122	1735	1857
Team Sam*	77	30	10	12	0	52	129	1940	2069
Team Samuel*	72	43	12	11	0	66	138	2404	2542
Team Sylvia*	35	35	4	12	0	51	86	1755	1841
Team Tadej*	75	41	13	7	9	70	145	2507	2652
Team Will*	32	43	4	7	0	54	86	1954	2040

 

Complete breakdown of points from stage 15 (including adults):

 

Name	STAGE RESULTS	PINK JERSEY	PURPLE JERSEY	BLUE JERSEY	WHITE JERSEY	POINTS/CLASS	TOTAL	PREVIOUS	CUM. TOTAL
Team Adam	44	45	8	7	5	65	109	2658	2767
Team Amalia*	44	38	8	6	5	57	101	2434	2535
Team Amelia	73	30	13	12	5	60	133	2466	2599
Team Ansel*	73	40	13	12	0	65	138	2699	2837
Team Charles*	77	45	13	7	5	70	147	2687	2834
Team Chuck	73	42	10	12	5	69	142	2573	2715
Team Corey	86	37	7	12	0	56	142	2445	2587
Team Corsa	35	43	13	7	0	63	98	2653	2751
Team Craig	79	43	13	7	9	72	151	2816	2967
Team Dominic*	77	48	13	7	5	73	150	2617	2767
Team Doug	79	27	10	4	0	41	120	1751	1871
Team Feng	79	43	13	7	0	63	142	2655	2797
Team Grace*	18	43	8	12	0	63	81	2501	2582
Team Hugo*	73	34	13	12	0	59	132	2592	2724
Team JB	17	37	7	6	0	50	67	1919	1986
Team Joe	87	28	13	11	0	52	139	2244	2383
Team John	65	30	12	7	0	49	114	2068	2182
Team Jonwaine	97	34	10	10	0	54	151	2154	2305
Team Josh*	73	34	13	12	0	59	132	2514	2646
Team Julie	55	37	12	11	3	63	118	2200	2318
Team Kari	55	52	13	7	9	81	136	2929	3065
Team Kate	1	15	0	0	0	15	16	820	836
Team Kent	90	49	13	12	9	83	173	2835	3008
Team Laurens	79	33	13	7	5	58	137	2394	2531
Team Liz*	73	28	9	12	0	49	122	1735	1857
Team Mitchinson	70	43	13	12	0	68	138	2721	2859
Team Rob	77	32	13	7	4	56	133	2310	2443
Team Sam*	77	30	10	12	0	52	129	1940	2069
Team Samuel*	72	43	12	11	0	66	138	2404	2542
Team Sylvia*	35	35	4	12	0	51	86	1755	1841
Team Tadej*	75	41	13	7	9	70	145	2507	2652
Team Wes	38	30	8	12	0	50	88	2185	2273
Team Will*	32	43	4	7	0	54	86	1954	2040

 

¡Viva la Vuelta!

 

-Laurens.