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Rui Costa (Intermarche–Circus–Wanty) outfoxed the Vuelta a Espana breakaway on Stage 15 to take his first victory at a Grand Tour since Stage 19 of the 2013 Tour de France in what was an extremely thrilling day of racing.
The previous world champion employed among the similar crafty racecraft that noticed him take the rainbow bands 10 years in the past by refusing to work with Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain Victorious) on the climb and backing his dash within the ultimate kilometre after finessing all the best way down the ultimate descent.
Lennard Kamna (Bora-Hansgrohe) had gained a small hole on Buitrago and Costa, however crashed after overshooting a nook on the descent into Lekunberri.
The German was introduced again into the fold by Costa’s shenanigans on the head of race and he got here near the victory within the dash, however he could not maintain off the wily Portuguese rider’s dash to the road.
That is Costa’s fourth skilled victory for Intermarche–Circus–Wanty, and his most in a season since that golden 2013 marketing campaign.
The GC group arrived safely on the end with Sepp Kuss (Jumbo-VIsma) conserving the purple jersey with the race going into its second relaxation day on Monday.
Stage 15 began in Pamplona, however there weren’t any bulls for the riders to fret about, solely a charging Belgian spurred on by his stage victory on Saturday and able to hunt for extra.
Evenepoel kicked off the racing with a bang alongside Andreas Kron (Lotto-Dstny) and Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers) who have been additionally energetic within the early phases, and after a speedy opening 60km a giant break started to get away.
Behind, the motion was heating up as Marc Soler (UAE Group Emirates) tried to gentle up the GC battle, forcing Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) to mark him and be a part of the break.
Evenepoel and co have been sad with the GC riders infiltrating the transfer because it meant the entire Jumbo-Visma contingent have been working to convey them again.
This prompted the Belgian champion to re-attack and slip away from the bigger group with Costa and Cristian Rodriguez (Arke Samsic).
The break was now forming in entrance with Jumbo-Visma placing up a block within the peloton and solely permitting riders they weren’t nervous about into the transfer.
A number of riders bridged as much as Evenepoel and Costa’s group, ultimately forming a bunch of 15 that appeared set to struggle for the stage victory, together with Kamna, Buitrago and Kron.
The one remaining problem got here from a curious resolution by Alpecin-Deceuninck to start chasing in assist of Kaden Groves’ sprinting ambitions, however they might not make any vital inroads into the lead group’s benefit, and would really solely lose time on the climbs.
Chris Hamilton (DSM-Firmenich) was one of many first to assault the break, making an attempt to realize a bonus forward of the ultimate climb up the Puerto de Zuarrate with Jimmy Janssens (Alpecin-Deceuninck) following go well with on the decrease slopes.
Janssens offered the carrot for Costa and Buitrago to chase, with the catch being made 14km from the road and the Belgian rapidly being unable to stick with them.
Behind everybody checked out Evenepoel earlier than Kamna realised the defending Vuelta champion didn’t have it, forcing him to make the junction to the 2 in entrance on his personal.
As soon as Kamna made it to the entrance of the race, solely a descent stood within the trio’s approach of the victory and it was clear Costa was utilizing each trick within the e book to avoid wasting power: skipping turns, finessing, pretending he didn’t have it till a big transfer slipped away.
The chess continued all the best way down the ultimate descent earlier than Kamna ultimately received away as Buitrago grew to become fed up and let the German get a niche.
He was nicely on his approach to presumably taking one other stage victory at this 12 months’s Vuelta, earlier than overshooting one of many ultimate corners and crashing into the grass.
Kamna’s probabilities gave the impression to be gone, however as Costa and Buitrago continued to bicker, the German was coming again into the body, able to struggle out the ultimate dash.
Costa stayed calm and slipped onto his wheel earlier than Buitrago kicked and with Kamna utilizing all of the adrenaline from the crash to muster sufficient power up for a ultimate kick he got here shut, however couldn’t fend off the cost from Costa who took the stage.
It was a dramatic finish to an exhilarating stage, with Evenepoel and the remainder of the break ending simply two seconds down regardless of cresting the climb some 30 seconds behind the leaders.
The GC battle noticed no motion with the ultimate climb a lot too straightforward for these to make any distinction which means they go into the second relaxation day with Kuss, Primoz Roglic and Vingegaard nonetheless within the prime three spots and searching comfy to take an historic 1-2-3 end on the Vuelta a Espana.
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