Extended Highlights - Stage 15 - La Vuelta 2023

  • el año pasado
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Transcript
00:00 24 hours later, remarkable Remco Evenepoel has returned.
00:05 A resurgent Remco Evenepoel roared to victory yesterday
00:10 and the Belgian champion has vowed to keep hunting for stage wins
00:13 and King of the Mountains points between now and Madrid.
00:16 It'd be no surprise to see him attacking again today,
00:19 but he's bound to have company,
00:21 because this 15th stage looks ideal for the punchers and breakaway specialists
00:25 before Monday's rest day.
00:27 It's really a day for the breakaway,
00:28 but I think a lot of teams think it, so it will be a big fight.
00:31 Of course, when I have good legs, I can do something here.
00:35 It looks a bit like the stage in Dauphine, where I was third,
00:39 with a semi-hard climb at the end.
00:41 But we also have Rui in the team, Rui Costa,
00:45 which the stage also suits him very well.
00:48 So we try to have one or two guys in the breakaway
00:51 and then the legs will talk.
00:53 Little Trek are yet to win at this edition,
00:56 but Bauke Mollema did take a Vuelta stage in 2013
00:59 and the experienced Dutchman,
01:01 who has become something of a one-day specialist,
01:03 triumphed on the Tour de France as recently as 2021.
01:06 I think the stages I won in the Tour were harder than this one.
01:11 But at the moment, maybe this kind of race profile suits me better,
01:16 because I didn't have the best legs the last two weeks yet.
01:20 I was a little bit sick before the Vuelta already
01:22 and also last week I had a sore throat
01:24 and I was missing the power to do anything, to go in the brakes.
01:29 But we will see today how the legs are.
01:32 There are also riders who have already won at this Vuelta.
01:35 They'll be trying to emulate Evenepoel by doubling up.
01:38 I hope I have teammates, if it's a big group.
01:43 I don't think so much about who else is there.
01:47 And then we will see on the last climb how I'm feeling
01:52 and hopefully I can get away.
01:54 You always want more, but it's very difficult.
01:57 One victory is fine, two would be great,
02:00 but I think it will be a very disputed stage for the escape.
02:07 And we will try, for sure.
02:10 Just under 160 km to cover between Pamplona and Leckenberry
02:15 with three categorized climbs.
02:17 The long but shallow Puerta de les Raga
02:20 and then two hikes of the Puerta de Zuararate,
02:22 the last of which tops out with just 8.5 km to go.
02:26 The promises to be an almighty battle to get into the right move.
02:29 Well, as expected, there was a fast-paced start
02:40 with you-know-who looking lively.
02:42 Evenepoel opening up a small gap with around 20 other riders.
02:46 But Jumbo-Visma were keeping a close eye on anybody trying to bridge across.
02:52 Jonas Vingegaard jumping on the wheel of Marc Soler here.
02:55 By this point, the peloton had already been whittled down to a GC group.
02:59 Jumbo-Visma riding hard to catch the breakaway
03:03 because they didn't want to let Soler or Aleksandr Vlasov go up the road.
03:07 All back together again, but there would soon be counterattacks.
03:11 And the move eventually went on the first climb
03:16 as the peloton stepped off the gas.
03:17 Evenepoel was up there naturally
03:19 along with his fellow stage winner Leonard Kemmler
03:21 former world champion Rui Costa
03:24 Santiago Buitrago and Cristian Rodriguez.
03:27 Evenepoel leading them over the summit and picking up a few more points
03:32 and they were soon joined by 10 more riders
03:34 Caicedo, Kroon, Hamilton, Vendrame, Mola, Dens, Bouchard, Janssens, Ellesand and Rubio.
03:41 The gap creeping up to three minutes with Jumbo-Visma controlling the bunch.
03:45 While three riders in the breakaway were within 20 minutes of the overall lead
03:51 Evenepoel, Rodriguez and Buitrago, the highest placed on GC at 13 minutes 15.
03:56 So Jumbo-Visma weren't going to let them have eight minutes like yesterday.
04:00 Well, Jumbo even got a helping hand from Alpecin Deceuninck
04:10 who were perhaps starting to worry about Evenepoel closing the gap on Caden Groves
04:14 in the points classification.
04:16 There was no major change in the gap though.
04:18 It was over three minutes as they approached the second climb of the day
04:21 where Hamilton and Buitrago went on the attack.
04:24 This injection of pace from the Colombian really hurting his fellow escapees
04:29 as the front group began to splinter.
04:31 Well, much further back Geraint Thomas was also suffering after a crash.
04:38 It's been a miserable Vuelta for the Welshman
04:40 who was runner-up at the Giro earlier this year.
04:45 The intermediate sprint gave a clear indication of Evenepoel's intentions.
04:49 He was going for the stage, not the green jersey points
04:52 as the maximum 20 were collected by a team-mate of Groves, Yimi Janssens, who then pushed on.
04:58 At this point it was obvious the stage victory would go to the breakaway
05:01 with the peloton still three minutes back.
05:03 Buitrago and Rui Costa soon caught Janssens and took a small lead onto the final climb.
05:09 After his efforts yesterday, it didn't look like Evenepoel would be able to close the gap.
05:14 Buitrago and Costa now leading by around 20 seconds,
05:17 but they would have some company up at the front as Kemner attacked from the chase group.
05:21 The German soon catching up and even going solo in the descent.
05:26 But he then misjudged the left-hander and ended up crashing with only a few kilometres to go.
05:31 Disaster for Kemner.
05:33 And yet Costa and Buitrago were playing games and that allowed the German to catch up
05:39 while the Evenepoel group was closing fast in the final K.
05:44 The group is coming behind with Renpo Evenepoel, Andreas Krohn, Rodriguez.
05:49 They're coming, but is it going to be too late for the group behind?
05:52 It starts to open up from this trio.
05:54 Buitrago down the centre of the road and Kemner starts to kick.
05:58 Kemner goes and one week ago it was him who took the stage victory,
06:01 but coming to the line, it's Costa.
06:03 It's going to be a throw for the line and Costa takes it.
06:06 The masterclass.
06:08 Rui Costa wins his first Vuelta stage victory of his career.
06:13 I love it.
06:14 The evergreen Rui Costa turning back the clock to take his first Grand Tour stage win in over a decade.
06:19 Back in 2013, he won two stages of the Tour de France and the Rainbow Jersey.
06:24 2023 is turning into a great season as well for the 36-year-old Portuguese.
06:28 He has taken four wins, all of them on Spanish soil.
06:31 One victory in Vuelta a España for me is very, very important for the team.
06:40 I'm so happy.
06:43 Costa winning ahead of Kemner and Buitrago with Evenepoel leading in the chase group.
06:57 The peloton came in at 2 minutes 52 with David Gonzalez just ahead of Groves.
07:02 No changes in the top ten overall, so Sepp Kuss still leads.
07:08 Buitrago has closed the gap on Steph Kras in 12th place.
07:12 Groves still leads the Green Jersey standings by 73 points from Evenepoel.
07:16 He'll have been relieved to see that the Belgian didn't take any at the intermediate sprint.
07:21 Evenepoel did though grab eight King of the Mountains points.
07:26 He now boasts a solid lead of 32 points over Michael Stora.
07:30 Juan Ayuso remains the best young rider by almost three minutes.
07:36 Buitrago and Evenepoel are inside the top five.
07:39 The peloton will enjoy a second rest day in Santander on Monday before heading into an intense final week.
07:45 And there are bound to be surprises on the road to Madrid.
07:48 (upbeat music)