Stage 15

The road

At the start

Sierra Nevada, the hardest day of all

Evenepoel had his first bad day on La Pandera and lost 52 seconds to Primož Roglič, who is now 1:49 back, with Enric Mas at 2:43. Today is the queen stage and the only finish above 2,000 metres in this Vuelta: the Alto del Purche, with its four kilometres of thirteen and fifteen per cent, then 28 kilometres of Sierra Nevada to 2,520. Whoever has red tonight has the race to lose.

How it was won

1. 158 km to go

   Through Granada onto the queen stage

   AG2R have taken over the chase for Ben O'Connor, Jungels doing an enormous amount of work to bring the break back to 4:30 with the Purche and then 28 kilometres of Sierra Nevada waiting.

2. 240 km to go

   Vine cruelly takes the points

   Craddock pushed on to try to hold the summit for himself, and Jay Vine surges across at the last to take the maximum ten, extending his tally to fifty-three and pulling further clear of Carapaz in the mountains classification.

3. 328 km to go

   The 10% ramps split everything

   The early pitches of Sierra Nevada hurt everybody. Masnada crashes, Van Wilder is distanced, and suddenly Evenepoel has nobody. Jumbo-Visma pounce: Harper produces another long turn and the group is cut to the bone.

4. 411 km to go

   López goes, then Mas

   Ten and a half kilometres from the top López attacks in pursuit of Soler and precious time, and Mas follows him up the wide road soon after, leaving Evenepoel with only Roglič and O'Connor. Above 2,000 metres Arensman comes past Soler in pursuit of the stage.

5. 52 km to go

   Roglič has nothing

   The Slovenian never moves off the wheels, seemingly unable to attack the red jersey or join Mas up the road, and only kicks away in the last two kilometres. It is not the day he needed.

6. 6At the line

   Arensman wins, Evenepoel holds

   Thymen Arensman rides the last kilometres alone at altitude to announce himself as a Grand Tour rider. Behind, Evenepoel suffers visibly but limits the damage to Mas and Roglič — and keeps red on the queen stage.

The result