2014 Vuelta a España: Niemiec wins alone

Przemyslaw Niemiec won the fifteenth stage of the Vuelta a España after a race-long breakaway that saw him hold off the GC’s favourites late charge on the final climb to Lagos do Covadonga. The Lampre-Merida rider finished just seconds ahead of Movistar’s Alejandro Valverde and Katusha’s Joaquim Rodriguez, who finished second and third respectively after managing to drop race leader Alberto Contador of Tinkoff-Saxo, with 1 km to go.

The 152.2-km stage began in Oviedo then made its way to the coast, which it followed before turning inland to the mountains for two climbs in the final 50 km: first the Puerto del Torno, then the climb to Lagos do Covadonga, where the finish was located. The peloton stayed together for more than an hour after the start, all attacks neutralized before Cameron Meyer of Orica-GreenEdge, John Degenkolb of Giant-Shimano, Kristof Vandewalle of Trek, Caja Rural’s Francisco Aramendia and Niemiec managed to escape the peloton’s grasp. Satisfied with the move’s makeup, the peloton then sat up, allowing the escapees to gain nearly 10 minutes advantage.

The peloton didn’t take up the chase until the foot of the Puerto del Torno, where weather conditions took a turn for the worse. Garmin-Sharp’s Dan Martin came a cropper and had to be helped back by his teammates on the wet and treacherous descent.

By the bottom of the final climb, the breakaway had four minutes advantage and was down to four men, Degenkolb having been dropped. As the road turned up, Meyer was the first to take off, quickly followed by Niemiec, who began to work with the Australian.

Behind, the Giant-Shimano’s Warren Barguil opened proceedings in the peloton, drawing out an elite selection. Then Contador went on the offensive, with only Rodriguez and Valverde able to follow. For the rest of the climb, Contador, Rodriguez and Valverde traded blows, attacking each other then letting off, while Chris Froome of Sky, Dan Martin, and Astana’s Fabio Aru struggled to limit their losses.

The battle behind worked to Niemiec’s advantage. The Lampre-Merida rider managed to drop Meyer with 5 km left, and then maintained a steady pace, just fast enough to take the win alone, while the GC favourites marked each other.

Finally, with 1 km to go, Valverde and Rodriguez managed to crack Contador but, with only a downhill section and a slight kick up to the line remaining, they had left it too late to do significant damage. Riding his own pace, Chris Froome managed to stay within reach as well, finishing just a handful of seconds behind the trio of Spaniards.

Contador maintains his lead in the overall classification, now 31 seconds up on second-place Valverde. Froome sits in third, 1:20 back.

For Canada, Ryder Hesjedal finished safely, 11 and a quarter minutes behind, while Guillaume Boivin came in with the gruppetto, a half hour in arrears.