Primož Roglič has attacked Remco Evenepoel again on the summit finish of stage 15 at La Vuelta today but race leader Evenepoel limited his losses to just 15 seconds on the queen stage of the race.
While Enric Mas (Movistar) and Miguel Ángel López (Astana Qazaqstan) attacked the select group early on the final climb of Sierra Nevada, Roglič (Jumbo Visma) and Evenepoel (QuickStep-AlphaVinyl) let them ride away. And after Evenepoel rode hard on the front in pursuit of them for several kilometres, Roglič waited until just over 1km to go and attacked the race leader.
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However, while the Slovenian pulled away from the young Belgian, Evenepoel rode in a very controlled manner in the chased behind and lost just 15 seconds to Roglič; a really significant ride that suggests an Evenepoel implosion is not on the cards.
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Up the ahead, from the main breakaway of the day, 22-year-old Dutch rider Thymen Arensman (Team DSM) took a brilliant stage victory by 1:24 from Mas with Lopez 3rd at 1:25. Then came king of the mountains Jay Vine. The Alpecin-Deceuninck rider, who was in the early breakaway, finished 4th at 1:30.
The came Roglič with Ben O'Connor (AG2R Citroën Team) in tow; both at 1:44 after both left Evenepoel in the final kilometre. But Evenepoel showed considerable grunt today to finish 9th, just 15 seconds down on Roglič and O'Connor.
The top three overall are now a little closer than at the start of the stage today; Evenepoel leading over Roglič by 1:34, with Mas now just 2:01 down in 3rd place and just as much as possible overall winner as the leading duo.
More to come.
