Belgian Cyclist Mads Pedersen Wins Stage 15 of the Vuelta a España
Mads Pedersen sprinted to victory in stage 15 of the Vuelta a España on Sunday, while Denmark’s Jonas Vingegaard held onto the overall lead after the 167.8km race from Vegadeo.
Pedersen, who also leads the points classification, made a late surge in the final two kilometers, narrowly beating Orluis Aular and Marco Frigo in a close finish at Monforte de Lemos.
Vingegaard opted not to challenge the leaders and stayed in the main group alongside João Almeida and Tom Pidcock, his closest competitors in the battle for the red jersey. The peloton finished 13 minutes and 31 seconds behind Pedersen.
Almeida remained second in the general classification, 48 seconds behind Vingegaard, while Pidcock kept third place, trailing by two minutes and 38 seconds.
Early in the race, a challenging 16.5km category-one climb to Puerto de la Garganta saw Jakub Otruba attack first, only to be overtaken by Jay Vine at the summit. Two pursuing groups broke away from the peloton, joining Vine and Otruba to form a lead pack of over 40 riders, with the main group falling more than three minutes behind.
Vine and Louis Vervaeke later pushed ahead, building a lead of nine minutes and 40 seconds with 100km remaining, while Vingegaard, Almeida, and Pidcock remained in the peloton without reacting.
A chase group, including Julien Bernard, Amanuel Ghebreigzabhier, and Javier Romo, closed the gap to about two minutes and 20 seconds approaching the final 50km. Romo crashed shortly after a spectator attempted to run toward the riders with a Palestinian flag, causing a brief disruption. However, he rejoined the chase within five minutes.
With 30km left, Pedersen joined a breakaway from the chase group, as seven riders advanced to close the 40-second gap to the leaders. They caught Vine and Vervaeke in the last seven kilometers. Vine tried another attack in the final stretch, but Pedersen powered ahead to take the win, extending his lead over Vingegaard in the points classification by 98 points.
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