Stage 15 LIVE – Another testing mountain challenge as Primoz Roglic eyes the red jersey

Stage 14 recap – Brilliant Bardet takes Stage 14 with perfectly judged display of climbing power

Romain Bardet timed his effort to perfection to take an impressive Stage 14 victory at the Vuelta a Espana.

The Team DSM rider went clear in the final kilometres of the stage, bringing back a spirited Nicolas Prodhomme (AG2R Citroen) on the slopes of the final climb.

Jesus Herrada (Cofidis) finished second 44 seconds behind Bardet with Jay Vine (Alpecin-Fenix) recovering from a nasty crash with a car to end in third.

Odd Christian Eiking battled admirably to hang on to the red jersey, despite an enterprising attack from Guillaume Martin’s Cofidis team late-on. In the end Eiking did lose a handful of seconds to second-placed Martin, but not enough to seriously dent his lead. Martin will have another bite of the apple today when the race continues into the mountains of Castile y Leon.

Jay Vine’s crash – which seemed to be cause by a mistake made when taking a bottle from his car – sparked concern, while his subsequent recovery and return to the front of the race saw many on social media calling for him to be awarded the day’s most aggressive rider prize. It was somewhat controversial, then, when the award was given to Dani Navarro (Burgos BH). The Australian finished the stage bloodied and with holes in his jersey and his dossards flapping in the wind.

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