Castrillo wins Vuelta stage 15 as Roglic closes on O'Connor / Photo: MIGUEL RIOPA - AFP
Castrillo wins Vuelta stage 15 as Roglic closes on O'Connor
Spain's Pablo Castrillo emerged from the fog to cross the line at the top of the daunting Cuitu Negru climb and take stage 15 of the Vuelta a Espana on Sunday, as Primoz Roglic took more time out of Ben O'Connor's overall lead.
The 23-year Castrillo (Kern Pharma team) had already won Thursday's 12th stage but this was the biggest victory of his young career.
He set off three kilometres from the finish and soloed to victory in the fog, holding off the late challenge of Roglic's Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe teammate Aleksandr Vlasov.
"It's something I couldn't even dream of," said Castrillo, stunned by the victory.
"I didn't think it was possible to achieve this (two wins) in this Vuelta."
After a punishing 143 kilometres of road and mountain, which included the Alto de Santo Emiliano and a double ascent of the Alto de la Colladiella as well as that vicious final climb, Roglic followed the young Spaniard across the line in fifth over a minute behind.
More significantly, the Slovenian clawed back another 38 seconds from O'Connor (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) to reduce the Australian's overall lead to just 43 sec as the race heads into its final week.
The riders have a rest day on Monday before setting off on stage 16, a 181 kilometre route from Luanco on the Asturian coast to the iconic ascent to the Lakes of Covadonga which takes in two intermediate climbs.
M.Schulz--MP
