Simon Yates adds a few more seconds
Thibaut Pinot won on the Lagos de Covadonga as he attacked with less than 7 km to go. Nobody went in immediate pursuit as the Frenchman was more than two minutes down in the GC. He is now back in the TOP 10, however, sitting in 7th place, a little bit over 2 minutes behind Yates. The GC leader was able to fend off all the attacks in the last kilometres and launch his own attack before the finish line. He managed to jump away from Quintana and Valverde and extend his lead by six seconds.
“Maybe we will know more after the time trial,” Yates said, denying that the GC has been decided. “I hope to have a good ride. I have been improving slowly in the time trials, but gaps are very small, so it’s hard to see one rider better than another.”
What do you think? Can the Brit hold on to his lead?
Vuelta stage 15
1 Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) 5:01:49
2 Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana Pro Team) + 28s
3 Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) + 30s
4 Alejandro Valverde (Movistar Team) + 32s
5 Steven Kruijswijk (LottoNL-Jumbo) + 32s
6 Enric Mas (Quick-Step Floors) + 34s
7 Nairo Quintana (Movistar Team) + 34s
8 Rigoberto Uran (EF Education First-Drapac) + 1:25
9 Emanuel Buchmann (Bora-Hansgrohe) + 1:33
10 Ion Izagirre (Bahrain-Merida) + 1:49
General classification after stage 15
1 Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) 59:11:18
2 Alejandro Valverde (Movistar Team) + 26s
3 Nairo Quintana (Movistar Team) + 33s
4 Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana Pro Team) + 43s
5 Steven Kruijswijk (LottoNL-Jumbo) + 1:29
6 Enric Mas (Quick-Step Floors) + 1:55
7 Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) + 2:10
8 Rigoberto Uran (EF Education First-Drapac) + 2:27
9 Ion Izagirre (Bahrain-Merida) + 3:03
10 Emanual Buchmann (Bora-Hansgrohe) + 3:15
