Pablo Castrillo (Kern Pharma) has left an unforgettable mark on La Vuelta 24, with a second win this week. Three days after he honoured the memory of Manolo Azcona powering to victory at the Manzaneda mountain resort, the 23-year-old Spaniard tamed the infamous Cuitu Negru at the end of a fast paced stage 15. Castrillo eventually got the better of Aleksandr Vlasov (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) and Pavel Sivakov (UAE Team Emirates) while the GC contenders battled on the same brutal slopes. Enric Mas (Movistar) and Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) were the strongest, again. But Ben O’Connor (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) retained La Roja with a lead of 43’’ on the Slovenian 3-time winner of La Vuelta. The final week promises some very intense battles.
La Vuelta 24 settles in Asturias for two major mountain showdowns, today en route to Cuitu Negru and on Tuesday with a summit finish at Lagos de Covadonga. Stage 15 is relatively short (142.9km) but there are four categorised ascents nonetheless and a total elevation of 3,545m.
First assaults
Attackers initiate a brutal battle for the breakaway from the start. Jay Vine (UAE Team Emirates), Kasper Asgreen (T-Rex Quick-Step), Marco Frigo, Riley Sheehan (Israel Premier Tech), Jonas Gregaard (Lotto Dstny), Max Poole (DSM-Firmenich-PostNL), Ion Izagirre (Cofidis) and Pablo Castrillo (Kern Pharma) lead the way to the summit of the first ascent of the day, the cat-1 Alto de la Colladiella (km 37.6)…
But they’re caught by a very small bunch with 95 kilometres to go! Attacks keep flying. Some 21 riders manage to get away towards the second ascent of the day, the cat-3 Alto de Santo Emiliano.
The relentless battle continues
The peloton, led by T-Rex Quick-Step, don’t give them much room and the break, paced by Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates) explodes on the second ascent of the Alto de la Colladiella (summit at km 87.6).
Seven riders emerge at the front: Jay Vine, Pavel Sivakov (UAE Team Emirates), Aleksandr Vlasov (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), Stefan Küng, Quentin Pacher (Groupama-FDJ) and Pablo Castrillo (Kern Pharma). Vine works hard to build a gap of 3’05’’ at the bottom of the final climb, the mighty Cuitu Negru: 18.9km at 7.4% with slopes up to 24% in the brutal final 3 kilometres.
A brutal finale
Vine steps away at the bottom of the climb. Sivakov sets the pace and, rapidly, only Vlasov and Castrillo can follow him.
Behind them, the GC group explodes. Mattia Cattaneo (T-Rex Quick-Step), Mikel Landa’s last teammate, is done pulling with 6km to go. He’s brought the gap down to 2’.
Castrillo attacks with 3km to go. But Vlasov bridges the gap as they enter the last kilometre… Still, the Spaniard accelerates, again and again and Vlasov can’t resist.
Among the GC contenders, Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) makes the first move inside the last 3km but Enric Mas (Movistar) gets back to him and momentarily distances him… They eventually finish together, 1’04’’ behind Castrillo and 38’’ ahead of Ben O’Connor.
