Vuelta 2016 Stage 15: Brambilla wins mountain stage, Quintana cements lead

Results 15th stage Vuelta

1. Gianluca Brambilla (ita)
2. Nairo Quintana (col) + 0.03
3. Fabio Felline (ita) + 0.25
4. Kenny Elissonde (fra) + 0.28
5. David de la Cruz (spa) + 0.31
6. Alberto Contador (spa) + 0.33
7. Davide Formolo (ita) + 0.34
8. Matvey Mamykin (rus) + 1.16
9. Esteban Chaves (col) + 1.53
10. Michele Scarponi (ita) + 1.59

11. Louis Meintjes (rsa) + 2.10
12. Andrew Talansky (usa) s.t.
13. Samuel Sánchez (spa) s.t.
14. Daniel Moreno (spa) s.t.
15. Alejandro Valverde (spa) + 2.31
18. Chris Froome (gbr) + 2.40
21. Simon Yates (gbr) + 2.47

GC after 15th stage
1. Nairo Quintana (col)
2. Chris Froome (gbr) + 3.37
3. Esteban Chaves (col) + 3.57
4. Alberto Contador (spa) + 4.02
5. Simon Yates (gbr) + 5.07
6. Samuel Sánchez (spa) + 6.12
7. Andrew Talansky (usa) + 6.43
8. Davide Formolo (ita) + 7.17
9. David de la Cruz (spa) + 7.23
10. Michele Scarponi (ita) + 7.39

11. Daniel Moreno (spa) + 8.05
12. George Bennett (nzl) + 9.45
13. Sergio Pardilla (spa) + 10.09
14. Jean Christophe Peraud (fra) + 11.06
15. Ben Hermans (bel) + 11.44
16. Alejandro Valverde (spa) + 12.48

Race report
Soon after the start an elite group with Quintana, Contador, Elissonde, Castroviejo, Fernandez, Rovni, Trofimov, Fraile, Felline, Mamikin, Brambilla, De la Cruz, Formolo and Moser give it a go. Team Sky is forced to chase, yet the pace is so high Chris Froome gets isolated. The front group forges on to a lead at over 3 minutes.

Froome’s ‘luck’ is that Chaves and Yates are in the chasing group also and Orica starts chasing. Astana is there to help, too.

At the first two climbs Fraile takes most KOM-points, ahead of Elissonde.

When hitting the closing climb the chasers are 2’20” down on the front group. At the slopes the lead goes down to 2 minutes. The gap stabilzes when Quintana starts setting the pace. The GC-leader pushes on until he is left with Contador and Brambilla, yet eventually even El Pistolero fades away.

Chaves attacks from the chasing group with around 2 kms left. Froome can’t keep up.

Brambilla sticks to Quintana’s wheel in the last kms and jumps clear in the yeing metres to sprint to victory. The Colombian doesn’t mind. He puts 2’37” into Froome and is ready to take the 2016 Vuelta.

Vuelta a España 2016 Stage 15: Route maps, height profiles, etc

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Climb details Aramón Formigal

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