Pablo Castrillo seems determined to break all the rules and surprises all and sundry with a victory of true agony in another of the queen stages of La Vuelta 2024, the fifteenth, which meant the first of the Asturian days with a finish in the terrible ramps of Cuitu Negru, the highest peak of the race.
Following the tone of La Vuelta 2024, the race started very fast with continuous attacks, although this time, after only ten kilometers, a group of eight riders was formed, but they did not manage to get away too much as the attacks continued from behind.
In fact, the arrival of the first ascent to the Colladiella did not result in the consolidation of the breakaway, but the pace accelerated behind, leaving the group of favorites in just twenty and the breakaway practically hunted at the top. It was not here but at the end of the technical descent when the reduced group of the favorites chased the lead. It was back to the start.
In the stretch between passes there were new movements and a cut prospered with Marc Soler, Pablo Castrillo or Louis Meintjjes as the most relevant riders and, passing through Mieres, almost at the foot of the second pass, Santo Emiliano, Pavel Sivakov started in a good move, as he was 6 minutes and a half behind in the general classification.
Interesting race situation because in the group was inserted Valentin Paret-Peintre so Decathlon-AG2R-La Mondiale was free to pull. Then took command of the race an ambitious TRex-QuickStep, with the collaboration of Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe who led the race fast, but leaving the breakaway that took some advantage.
A breakaway that was selected during this climb and the subsequent one to Colladiella to be selected in a group of just 8 units. A group that would be selected even more with the arrival to the first ramps of Pajares, leaving in search of the stage Pavel Sivakov, Aleksandr Vlasov and a, again sensational, Pablo Castrillo.
Meanwhile, the peloton continued to be controlled by TRex-QuickStep while on the approach to the start of Pajares the curious situation of Primoz Roglic changed his bike to opt for one with SRAM Red XPLR single chainring, from the previous 12v version as his Tarmac SL8 was not compatible with the new 13v group, and a 10-44 cassette, in order to have plenty of development for the impossible ramps of the Cuitu Negru.
They crowned the pass of Pajares, something that the escapees had done at just under 2 minutes, which still gave them hope of fighting for the stage. Time to try to recover legs in the three kilometers between the top of Pajares and the ski resort of Valgrande before facing the last three infernal ones on the way to Cuitu Negru.
And, as they reached the detour to the final stretch, just before the road steepened to infinity, a Pablo Castrillo who, in his usual rictus, had been giving sensations of pure agony throughout the climb to Pajares, started. A surprise attack that left the Russian and the Frenchman of Russian origin with a look of shock on his face.
The rider from Huesca opened a dozen seconds although he looked back and had them right there because, in distance, in such inhuman ramps, where time seems to stand still, every meter translates into extra seconds. Three kilometers of agony reached its climax when, at 1.5 km, Vlasov got rid of Sivakov to go for Castrillo.
He was approaching meter by meter until he managed to get to him, but with an overpriced bill that showed in a face also of pure agony. And, as it turned out, nobody beats Pablo Castrillo, who continued to hold the lead despite having Vlasov on his wheel, did not get nervous and even allowed himself to launch a demarraje in the small break, 800 m from the finish, before the infernal final ramp where the maximum 24% is reached, enough to make the Russian give in and win by a landslide nothing less than one of the queen stages of La Vuelta 2024, without half measures, in a big way.
Meanwhile, the group of favorites reached the start of the Cuitu Negru with Lipowitz pulling hard for leader Primoz Roglic’s attack in what was to be the definitive assault on the race lead. And that’s how it looked like it was going to be when the two of them went solo in what looked like it could be the sentence to La Vuelta 2024.
Lipowitz pulled away and Roglic accelerated but, as happens in these impossible ramps, the differences were counted in meters. Behind, a few seconds behind, a select group with Carapaz, Enric Mas, O’Connor and Mikel Landa as the main victims. And then came the surprise when Enric Mas began to open a gap, at his own pace, and approached Primoz Roglic and, not content with that, he went ahead and continued to leave the Slovenian on his wheel.
However, as happened in Ancares, the climb was long for Enric Mas and Roglic managed to reach his wheel almost at the finish line. Behind them, a tireless Richard Carapaz was just 9 seconds behind. Sepp Kuss was the next to pass at 17”. Mikel Landa was 23” behind and the leader, Ben O’Connor gave up 36 seconds, which allows him to reach the third week still with the red jersey on his shoulders.
Results Stage 15
- Pablo Castrillo (Kern Pharma) 3h45’51’’
- Aleksandr Vlasov (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) +12’’
- Pavel Sivakov (UAE Team Emirates) +31’’
- Enric Mas (Movistar Team) +1’04’’
- Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) m.t.
- Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) +1’09’’
- Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) +1’13’’
- Sepp Kuss (Visma-Lease a Bike) +1’22’’
- Mikel Landa (TRex-QuickStep) +1’27’’
- David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) +1’37’’
Ranking General
- Ben O’Connor (Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale) 60h19’22’’
- Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) +43’’
- Enric Mas (Movistar Team) +2’23’’
- Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) +2’44’’
- Mikel Landa (TRex-QuickStep) +3’05’’
- Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) +4’33’’
- David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) +4’39’’
- Carlos Rodríguez (INEOS Grenadiers) +4’40’’
- Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) +4’51’’
- Pavel Sivakov (UAE Team Emirates) +5’12’’
Source: www.brujulabike.com