Vuelta a España 2015

Vuelta a España 2015
Racing series	UCI WorldTour 2015
Host country	Spain Andorra
Competition period	August 22nd to September 13th
Stages	21st
overall length	3,376.4 km
Starting field	198 from 37 nations in 22 teams (158 of them arrived at the finish)
winner
Overall rating	1. Fabio Aru 85:36:13 h 2. Joaquim Rodríguez + 0:57 min 3. Rafał Majka + 1:09 min
Team evaluation	Movistar Team 256: 44: 38 h
Scoring jerseys
Overall rating	Fabio Aru
Scoring	Alejandro Valverde
Mountain scoring	Omar Fraile
Combination scoring	Joaquim Rodríguez
Most combative driver	Tom Dumoulin
course
← 2014	2016 →

The 70th Vuelta a España took place from August 22nd to September 13th, 2015. The cycling tour was part of the UCI WorldTour 2015 . It started in Marbella on the Costa del Sol and ended after a total of 3376.4 kilometers in Madrid . The program included a team time trial , an individual time trial and eight stages with a mountain finish .

The 7.4 km long team time trial of the first stage was not included in the individual overall ranking after protests by the teams . The background was the route that led on a sandy beach over plastic paths and dirt roads.

The 2010 winner , Vincenzo Nibali , was disqualified after the second stage after being pulled by the team car after a mass fall.

On the 8th stage there was a serious mass fall. Kris Boeckmans , who caused the fall when he drank from his bottle and drove over a pothole, fell over the handlebars and suffered several facial fractures, a concussion, a hemorrhage in the lungs and three broken ribs. He was placed in an artificial coma at the Murcia hospital . Daniel Martin , who was third in the overall standings at the time, Tejay van Garderen (16th) and sprinter Nacer Bouhanni were unable to take up the race after the crash. The subsequent winner of the stage, Jasper Stuyven , broke his navicular bone in the fall and therefore did not start the following day. In the final of the stage, Peter Sagan was knocked over by an escort motorcycle. Even for him it went no further the next day.

Top favorite Chris Froome crashed at the beginning of the 11th section of the day and reached the finish of the queen stage with a deficit of over eight minutes on winner Mikel Landa . Since Froome broke his foot in the fall, he did not start the 12th stage. The second favorite for Maillot Rojo , Nairo Quintana , also lost a lot of time on this stage, having had a fever the night before. The new wearer of the red jersey was Fabio Aru , followed by Joaquim Rodríguez and Tom Dumoulin . After Peter Sagan, Sérgio Paulinho , another driver of the Tinkoff-Saxo Team, had to end the race prematurely. Paulinho collided with a camera motorcycle.

Attendees

Number of participants by country:

20+

10-19

2-9

1

198 drivers from 37 nations started in 22 teams.

Among them were four drivers from Germany with Christian Knees (Sky) and Marcus Burghardt (BMC) as well as John Degenkolb and Johannes Fröhlinger (both Giant-Alpecin ). The Swiss Marcel Aregger and Simon Pellaud rode for IAM Cycling . Fabian Cancellara and the Austrian Riccardo Zoidl started for Trek Factory Racing .

Teams

The 17 UCI WorldTeams were entitled to start . In addition, five UCI Professional Continental teams were invited.

17 UCI WorldTeams						5 UCI Professional Continental Team
ALM	ag2r La Mondiale	TGA	Team Giant-Alpecin	MOV	Movistar team	CJR	Caja Rural-Seguros RGA
AST	Astana Pro Team	I AM	IAM Cycling	OGE	Orica GreenEdge	COF	Cofidis, Solutions Crédits
BMC	BMC Racing Team	CAT	Team Katusha	SKY	Team Sky	COL	Colombia
TCG	Team Cannondale-Garmin	LAM	Lampre-Merida	TCS	Tinkoff-Saxo	EUC	Team Europcar
EQS	Etixx-Quick Step	TLJ	Team Lotto NL-Jumbo	TFR	Trek Factory Racing	MTN	MTN-Qhubeka
FDJ	FDJ	LTS	Lotto Soudal

Favorites

Chris Froome and Nairo Quintana were the top favorites in the battle for the Maillot Rojo .

Last year's winner Alberto Contador ( TCS ) decided not to start after taking part in the other two three-week country tours this year . The top favorites for overall victory were the winner and runner-up of this year's Tour de France , Chris Froome ( SKY ) and Nairo Quintana ( MOV ). Other candidates for a place on the podium were third of the Tour de France, Alejandro Valverde ( MOV ), Tejay van Garderen ( BMC ), Joaquim Rodríguez ( KAT ), Domenico Pozzovivo ( ALM ) and the Astana trio Vincenzo Nibali and Mikel Landa and Fabio Aru .

The favorites in the mass sprint were the nine-time stage winner John Degenkolb ( TGA ), the four-time winner of the points classification of the Tour de France, Peter Sagan ( TCS ) and the Frenchman Nacer Bouhanni ( COF ).

Stage plan and stage winner

The 70th Vuelta started in Marbella .

Caminito del Rey , destination of the second stage

The queen stage took place in Andorra . In the mountains above Encamp was the destination of the eleventh section of the day.

Profile of the royal stage with 5,200 meters of altitude

The destination of the tour in Madrid at the Plaza de Cibeles

The tour began with a team time trial in Marbella on the Costa del Sol in the province of Málaga . The second stage ended with a mountain arrival at the Caminito del Rey . The Vuelta reached its southernmost point at the finish of the fourth stage in Vejer de la Frontera . The following sections led through Andalusia , where the first difficult mountain arrival up to La Alpujarra was due. The 9th and 10th stages led north along the Mediterranean to Castellón . After the first day of rest , the queen's stage followed with an altitude of 5,200 meters through Andorra . After two flat stages, three sections followed through the Cantabrian Mountains in northern Spain. The individual time trial in Burgos was held after the second day of rest. After sections through Castile-León , the tour ended after 21 day sections, as traditionally in Madrid .

stage	date	Starting place	Destination	Type	km	Stage winner
1.	Sat., August 22	Puerto Banus	Marbella		7.4	BMC Racing Team
2.	Sun 23 August	Alhaurin de la Torre	Caminito del Rey		158.7	Esteban Chaves (OGE)
3.	Mon., August 24th	Mijas	Málaga		158.4	Peter Sagan (TCS)
4th	Tuesday, August 25th	Estepona	Vejer de la Frontera		209.6	Alejandro Valverde (MOV)
5.	Wed., August 26th	rota	Alcalá de Guadaíra		167.3	Caleb Ewan (OGE)
6th	Thursday, August 27th	Cordoba	Sierra de Cazorla		200.3	Esteban Chaves (OGE)
7th	Friday, August 28th	Jódar	Alpujarras		191.1	Bert-Jan Lindeman (TLJ)
8th.	Saturday, August 29th	Puebla de Don Fadrique	Murcia		182.5	Jasper Stuyven (TFR)
9.	Sun, August 30th	Torrevieja	Cumbre del Sol, Benitatxell		168.3	Tom Dumoulin (TGA)
10.	Mon., August 31	Valencia	Castellón		146.6	Kristian Sbaragli (MTN)
R.	Tuesday, September 1st	Rest day in Andorra la Vella
11.	Wed., September 2nd	Andorra la Vella	Cortals d'Encamp		138	Mikel Landa (AST)
12.	Thursday, September 3rd	Escaldes-Engordany	Lleida		173	Danny van Poppel (TFR)
13.	Fri, September 4th	Calatayud	Tarazona		178	Nélson Oliveira (LAM)
14th	Sat, September 5th	Vitoria	Alto Campoo , Fuente del Chivo		215	Alessandro De Marchi (BMC)
15th	Sun, September 6th	Comillas	Sotres , Cabrales		175.8	Joaquim Rodríguez (KAT)
16.	Monday, September 7th	Luarca	Ermita de Alba, Quirós		185	Frank Schleck (TFR)
R.	Tuesday, September 8th	Rest day in Burgos
17th	Wed, September 9th	Burgos	Burgos		38.7	Tom Dumoulin (TGA)
18th	Thursday, September 10th	Roa	Riaza		204	Nicolas Roche (SKY)
19th	Fri, September 11th	Medina del Campo	Ávila		185.8	Alexis Gougeard (ALM)
20th	Saturday, September 12th	San Lorenzo de El Escorial	Cercedilla		175.8	Rubén Plaza (LAM)
21st	Sun, September 13th	Alcalá de Henares	Madrid		98.8	John Degenkolb (TGA)

Ratings and awards in the course of the race

• The leader of the overall standings wears the Maillot Rojo . The order of the ranking results from the time intervals between the individual drivers after each stage. In addition, at the finish of each stage there are time credits of 10, 6 and 4 seconds for the first three riders. Two intermediate sprints are carried out on each stage. Here the first three drivers receive a bonus of 3, 2 and one second. No time bonuses are given for the three time trials.
• The leader of the points classification wears the Maillot Verde . Points are awarded according to the following scheme:
  • 20 stage arrivals: 25, 20, 16, 14, 12, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 and one point for the first 15 riders at the finish
  • 19 intermediate sprints: 4, 2 and a point for the first three
• The leader of the mountain classification wears the Maillot Lunares (white jersey with blue dots). This year, points will be awarded to 45 categorized climbs. These are divided into five categories according to difficulty:
  • Cima Chava Jiménez on the Alto Ermita de Alba : 20, 15, 10, 6, 4, and 2 points for the first six riders at the finish of the 16th stage
  • Categoría Especial on the Collada de la Gallina (11th stage) and on the Alto Campoo (at the finish of the 14th stage): 15, 10, 6, 4 and 2 points for the first five riders
  • 16 mountains in the first category: 10, 6, 4, 2 and one point for the first five riders in the mountain classification
  • 9 climbs of the second category: 5, 3, and one point for the first three
  • 17 third category climbs: 3, 2 and one point for the top three
• The leader of the combined classification wears the Maillot Blanco . The ranking consists of the overall ranking, the points ranking and the mountain ranking.
• For the team classification , the times of the best three drivers of a team are added up at each stage.
• The most combative rider on each stage wears the red number on the back on the following stage. A jury selects three drivers, from which the spectators then choose the most combative driver. During the last stage, the spectators choose the most combative driver of the entire tour.
• Over ten stages, the tour organizer awards a fair play prize to the driver who has received the fewest penalties and is best placed in the overall ranking.

stage	Overall rating	Scoring	Mountain scoring	Combination scoring	Team ranking	Most combative driver
1.	Peter Velits (BMC)	not forgiven	not forgiven	not forgiven	BMC Racing Team	Cameron Meyer (OGE)
2.	Esteban Chaves (OGE)	Esteban Chaves (OGE) (1) , (4)	Esteban Chaves (OGE) (2)	Esteban Chaves (OGE) (3) , (5) , (6)	Team Sky	José Gonçalves (CJR)
3.			Omar Fraile (CJR)			Omar Fraile (CJR)
4th		Peter Sagan (TCS)				Markel Irízar (TFR)
5.	Tom Dumoulin (TGA)					Iljo Keisse (EQS)
6th	Esteban Chaves (OGE)					Miguel Ángel Rubiano (COL)
7th		Esteban Chaves (OGE) (7) , (8)				Amets Txurruka (CJR)
8th.						Ángel Madrazo (CJR)
9.	Tom Dumoulin (TGA)			Tom Dumoulin (TGA) (8)		Omar Fraile (CJR)
10.						Carlos Verona (EQS)
11.	Fabio Aru (AST)					Mikel Landa (AST)
12.						Maxime Bouet (EQS)
13.						Paweł Poljański (TCS)
14th						Carlos Quintero (COL)
15th		Joaquim Rodríguez (KAT) (11)		Joaquim Rodríguez (KAT) (10) , (12) , (13) , (14)		Brayan Ramírez (COL)
16.	Joaquim Rodríguez (KAT)					Rodolfo Torres (COL)
17th	Tom Dumoulin (TGA)					Tom Dumoulin (TGA)
18th					Movistar team	Ángel Madrazo (CJR)
19th						Alexis Gougeard (ALM)
20th	Fabio Aru (AST)					Rubén Plaza (LAM)
21st		Alejandro Valverde (MOV)				not forgiven
winner	Fabio Aru (AST)	Alejandro Valverde (MOV)	Omar Fraile (CJR)	Joaquim Rodríguez (KAT)	Movistar team	Tom Dumoulin (TGA)

Notes on the table:

⁽¹⁾ On the third stage, Tom Dumoulin wore the green jersey as second in the points classification, as Esteban Chaves was already wearing the red jersey.

⁽²⁾On the third stage, Walter Pedraza, second in the mountain classification , wore the dotted jersey, as Esteban Chaves was already wearing the red jersey.

⁽³⁾On the third stage, Nicolas Roche wore the white jersey as third in the combined classification, as Esteban Chaves was already wearing the red jersey and Tom Dumoulin the green jersey.

⁽⁴⁾On the fourth stage, Peter Sagan wore the green jersey as second in the points classification, as Esteban Chaves was already wearing the red jersey.

⁽⁵⁾ On the fourth and fifth stages, Tom Dumoulin wore the white jersey as second in the combined standings, as Esteban Chaves was already wearing the red jersey.

⁽⁶⁾ On the seventh, eighth and ninth stages, Tom Dumoulin wore the white jersey as the runner-up in the combined standings, as Esteban Chaves was already wearing the red jersey.

⁽⁷⁾ On the eighth stage, Peter Sagan wore the green jersey as second in the points classification, as Esteban Chaves was already wearing the red jersey.

^(8th)On the ninth stage, Alejandro Valverde wore the green jersey as second in the points classification, as Esteban Chaves was already wearing the red jersey.

⁽⁹⁾ On the tenth and eleventh stages, Joaquim Rodríguez wore the white jersey as third in the combined classification, as Tom Dumoulin was already wearing the red jersey and Esteban Chaves the green jersey.

⁽¹⁰⁾ On the sixteenth stage, Tom Dumoulin wore the white jersey as third in the combined standings, as Joaquim Rodríguez was already wearing the green jersey and Fabio Aru the red jersey.

⁽¹¹⁾ On the seventeenth stage, Esteban Chaves wore the green jersey as second in the points classification, as Joaquim Rodríguez was already wearing the red jersey.

⁽¹²⁾ On the seventeenth stage, Fabio Aru wore the white jersey as runner-up in the combined standings, as Joaquim Rodríguez was already wearing the red jersey.

⁽¹³⁾ On the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth stages, Fabio Aru wore the white jersey as third in the combined classification, as Joaquim Rodríguez was already wearing the green jersey and Tom Dumoulin the red jersey.

⁽¹⁴⁾ On the twenty-first stage, Tom Dumoulin wore the white jersey as third in the combined standings, as Joaquim Rodriguez was already wearing the green jersey and Fabio Aru the red jersey.

See also

• Giro d'Italia 2015
• Tour de France 2015
• UCI Road World Championships 2015

References and comments

1. ↑ Plastic path , natural road, wooden bridge - "Is that supposed to be a joke?" radsport-news.com, August 22, 2015, accessed on August 22, 2015 . 
2. ↑ Italian can be pulled by team vehicle - Nibali excluded from Vuelta. radsport-news.com, August 23, 2015, accessed August 25, 2015 . 
3. ^ Vuelta a Espana: Broken shoulder at van Garderen - Boeckmans put into an artificial coma after a serious fall. (No longer available online.) Radsport-news.com, August 29, 2015, formerly in the original ; accessed on August 30, 2015 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.    
4. ↑ Fractures in the face, injured lungs, broken ribs - Boeckmans put into an artificial coma after the Vuelta fall. radsport-news.com, August 30, 2015, accessed August 30, 2015 . 
5. ↑ Tinkoff-Saxo is considering legal action - hit by an escort motorcycle - Sagan has to give up Vuelta. radsport-news.com, August 30, 2015, accessed August 30, 2015 . 
6. ↑ Froome, Quintana, Valverde without a chance? - Tour stars break into the Vuelta. radsport-news.com, September 3, 2015, accessed September 3, 2015 . 
7. ↑ Sagan Paulinho also out because of a motorcycle accident - Tinkov wants to withdraw his team from the Vuelta. radsport-news.com, September 3, 2015, accessed September 3, 2015 . 
8. ↑ The favorites of the 70th Vuelta a España - High level and balanced as rarely: there are no 5 stars. radsport-news.com, August 20, 2015, accessed August 25, 2015 . 
9. ↑ Vuelta madness: 5200 meters in altitude on only 138 km - Unzue: "There has never been such a difficult stage". radsport-news.com, September 1, 2015, accessed on September 2, 2015 . 

Web links

Commons : Vuelta a España 2015  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Official website (Spanish, English, French)
• Libro de ruta Official road book of the Vuelta a España 2015 (Spanish, PDF, 106 MB)
• Regulations Official regulations of the Vuelta a España 2015 (English, PDF, 3 MB)
• Vuelta a España 2015 in the Radsportseiten.net database
• Vuelta a España 2015 in the ProCyclingStats.com database