Vuelta Standings: Stage 15

With two out of the three consecutive mountain stages completed tonight’s Stage 16 may see the leaders jersey change hands. Joaquím Rodríguez held on after numerous attacks by Alberto Contador to continue his stint in red. He leads Contador by 22 seconds and Alejandro Valverde by 1:41 minutes. Chris Froome has dropped off the pace to sit 2:16 minutes down in fourth place with the Tour de France and Olympics appearing to have taken their toll on the Sky rider.

The GC looks to be a three horse race now with Valverde slightly behind his two compatriots. Valverde and Rodríguez have both won two individual stages so far, proving to be able to match it with Contador for much longer than anyone anticipated. The parcours of the race this year have helped the two riders, with only the one ITT and steep sharp finishes similar to those of the April and spring classics where Valverde and Joaquím Rodríguez have excelled.

Stage 16 is the second last big mountain stage in the race and with the rest day to come tomorrow, there may be several attacks by riders just off the GC who are looking to move up a position or two. The day after the rest day is a medium mountain stage and the penultimate stage is the final mountain stage from Palazuelos de Eresma to Bola del Mundo.

Classification leaders after Stage 15 

General classification: Joaquím Rodríguez (Katusha) 58:17:21
Alberto Contador (Saxo Bank-Tinkoff Bank) +22
Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) +1:41

Points Classification: Joaquím Rodríguez (Katusha) 148 points
Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) 127 points
John Degenkolb (Argos-Shimano) 112 points


Mountain Classification: Simon Clarke (Orica-GreenEdge) 34 points
Joaquím Rodríguez (Katusha) 30 points
Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) 26 points

Combination Classification: Joaquím Rodríguez (Katusha) 4 points
Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) 8 points
Alberto Contador (Saxo Bank-Tinkoff Bank) +22