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2015 Vuelta a España Stage 6: Chaves back in red after second stage win

Esteban Chaves (Colombia/Orica-GreenEdge) is lighting up the 70th Vuelta a España with brave, punchy performances that have now brought him a brace of wins.

August 27, 2015
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Esteban Chaves (Colombia/Orica-GreenEdge) is lighting up the 70th Vuelta a España with brave, punchy performances that have now brought him a brace of wins. Chaves took Thursday’s uphill victory and snatched back the red leader’s jersey that he lost to Tom Dumoulin (The Netherlands/Giant-Alpecin) Wednesday.

The peloton wasn’t tolerant of any breakaway until around the 70-km mark when a sextet including the race’s first red jersey wearer Peter Velits (Slovakia/BMC) escaped. The break negotiated the ripples that led to the first of two Cat. 3 climbs of the day. Giant-Alpecin had peloton pace-making duties but looked for help.

As the break laboured up the 12-km Alto de Baeza 4:00 ahead, Movistar powered the peloton, Tinkoff-Saxo disinterested in helping. Cyril Gautier (France/Europcar) peaked first, and the leading group kept 3:15 of its gap with 54-km to go.

The final kick up to Sierra Cazorla was 3.3-km of 6.3% grade with pitches up to 15.5%, though the lead-up was 14-km of around 2.5%. Six intrepid riders were aware that the peloton was closing on the long false flat. A move from escapee Miguel Rubiano (Colombia) prompted Tour de France stage winner Steve Cummings (Great Britain/MTN-Qhubeka) to attack his fellow fugitives with 9-km remaining.

On the little descent before the stiff final 3-km, Cummings had a 20-second advantage. Second place Chaves shot out from the peloton and caught Cummings with 2-km to go. The peloton shattered as it chased Chaves. Dumoulin tried to pull the Colombian back on a flatter section. Irishman Dan Martin (Cannondale-Garmin) initiated a counter move and his compatriot Nicolas Roche (Sky) another.

Chaves hung tough to take his third Grand Tour triumph on the season while Martin passed Dumoulin to pull himself up into a podium position at Roche’s expense.

Friday will be a key stage that ends on a 20-km ascent to Capilleira.

2015 Vuelta a España Stage 6
1) Esteban Chaves (Colombia/Orica-GreenEdge) 4:46:16
2) Dan Martin (Ireland/Cannondale-Garmin) +0:05
3) Tom Dumoulin (The Netherlands/Giant-Alpecin) s.t.

2015 Vuelta a España GC
1) Esteban Chaves (Colombia/Orica-GreenEdge) 21:55:13
2) Tom Dumoulin (The Netherlands/Giant-Alpecin) +0:10
3) Dan Martin (Ireland/Cannondale-Garmin) +0:33