Short mountain stages often lend themselves to explosive racing, and stage 15 of the Vuelta a Espana, won by Gianluca Brambilla (Etixx-QuickStep), saw race leader Nairo Quintana (Movistar) put Chris Froome (Team Sky) to the sword in spectacular fashion.
The Colombian jumped wholeheartedly on board when three-time Vuelta winner Alberto Contador, sixth overall, attacked and formed a 14-rider breakaway in the opening kilometres of the 118km stage to the Formigal summit finish.
Froome, who had had to chase through the early splits, was well and truly caught out, and, crucially, six of his teammates were left at the back of the race, unable to assist in the chase. Movistar kept the pressure on in the chase group to prevent the Sky domestiques coming back into the frame as a flustered Froome issued panicked messages to his race radio.
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Quintana and Contador, who both had two teammates with them in the break, held a lead of two to three minutes across the two small climbs en route to the first-category Alto de Formigal, which was Vuelta’s first-ever summit finish back in 1972.
Quintana took command and jumped away with Contador and Brambilla, while things went from bad to worse for Froome in the chase as he was unable to respond when key riders began to attack – one of them Esteban Chaves, who gained another chunk of time today.
In the end, Quintana, who lost out in the sprint to a fresher Brambilla, put 2:37 into Froome, thanks in part to the six bonus seconds he collected for second place. He said he needed to increase his 54-second lead over Froome with the stage 19 time trial looming, and he will be more than satisfied with the new buffer of 3:37.
Watch the Vuelta a Espana stage 15 highlights video
How it unfolded
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