Castrillo wins Vuelta stage 15, Roglic closes on O'Connor

Pablo Castrillo claimed his 2nd triumph successful nan mountains connected shape 15 of nan Vuelta a Espana, arsenic Primoz Roglic closed connected wide leader Ben O’Connor successful nan title for nan reddish jersey.

The Spaniard collapsed clear towards nan extremity of nan past climb and held disconnected Russian rider Aleksandr Vlasov successful a thrilling finale connected nan punishing slopes of nan Cuitu Negru.

Meanwhile, Roglic crossed nan statement alongside chap wide classification hopeful Enric Mas 38 seconds up of O'Connor, who was distanced arsenic nan gradient ramped up to 24% astir 3 kilometres from nan finish.

Australia's O'Connor now holds a slender 43-second advantage complete three-time champion Roglic going into nan last week, which concludes pinch an individual clip proceedings successful Madrid adjacent Sunday.

Mas is 3rd successful nan GC standings 2 minutes and 23 seconds down, pinch Adam Yates nan highest-placed British rider successful 11th, much than 5 minutes adrift.

Speaking astir his 2nd triumph successful 4 days, 23-year-old Castrillo, who has been linked pinch a move to Ineos Grenadiers, said: "The truth is I didn't expect it. This greeting I came pinch nan volition to make nan break and spot really it would go, but I didn't expect to get location successful a position to win.

"The first triumph was unbelievable but to get a 2nd 1 is simply a dream."

1. Pablo Castrillo (Spa/Equipo Kern Pharma) 3hrs 45mins 51secs

2. Aleksandr Vlasov (Rus/Red Bull - Bora-Hansgrohe) +12secs

3. Pavel Sivakov (Fra/UAE Team Emirates) +31secs

4. Enric Mas (Spa/Movistar) +1min 04secs

5. Primoz Roglic (Slo/Red Bull - Bora-Hansgrohe) Same time

6. Mattias Skjelmose (Den/Lidl - Trek) +1min 09secs

7. Richard Carapaz (Ecu/EF Education - EasyPost) +1min 13secs

8. Sepp Kuss (US/Visma-Lease a Bike) +1min 22secs

9. Mikel Landa (Spa/Soudal-Quick-Step) +1min 27secs

10. David Gaudu (Fra/Groupama-FDJ +1min 37secs

1. Ben O'Connor (Aus/Decathlon-AG2R-La Mondiale) 60hrs 19mins 22secs

2. Primoz Roglic (Slo/Red Bull - Bora-Hansgrohe) +43secs

3. Enric Mas (Spa/Movistar) +2mins 23secs

4. Richard Carapaz (Ecu/EF Education-EasyPost) +2mins 44secs

5. Mikel Landa (Spa/Soudal - Quick-Step) +3mins 05secs

6. Florian Lipowitz (Ger/Red Bull - Bora-Hansgrohe) 4mins 33secs

7. David Gaudu (Fra/Groupama - FDJ) 4mins 39secs

8. Carlos Rodriguez (Spa/Ineos Grenadiers) +4mins 40secs

9. Mattias Skjelmose (Den/Lidl trek) +4mins 51secs

10. Pavel Sivakov (Fra/UAE Team Emirates) +5mins 12secs