Eleven riders took off right from the start. That company's main climbers included Emanuel Buchmann, Robert Power, Egor Silin and Timothy Roe.
The break took over 15', jeopardizing the overall top 10 spots. The group was scattered on the second difficulty, Puerto de San Glorio. Roe, Power, Silin, H.Fernández, Buchmann became the five only remaining escapees.
Right away H.Fernández and Roe would cracked on the first slopes of the horrendously steep climb to La Camperona. Silin didn't last much longer.
Kelderman lit the flame within GC City. He would quickly put 20" into the others, who were yet to react. No sign of Sam Vandenborre at the fore.
Robert Power let go of Buchmann in the final hectometers, making up for disappointing Grand Tour racing this year with a very welcome stage win.
Sam was finally caught by the camera with 2km to go. He was spot near the likes of Lutsenko and Gallopin, who he is supposed to outclimb under normal circumstances. Kelderman's gap already amounted to over 1'30". Sam Vandenborre could've been boxed in earlier or was he just fading?
The Dutchman didn't way for a clearer answer, as he kept extending the lead. Once he had crossed the line, it was a long wait for Vandenborre.
Three little groups merged with one another to create the above 10-man break. It included most KoM contenders, except for jersey holder Bordas.
The fight for the jersey splintered the group on the local laps. Sebastian Henao, still looking to enter the top 10, attacked with 11 km left. At that point, the sole leader had 2'20" over him with fading chasers in between.
His attack did not last, but he did end up in the E2. So did Intxausti and Bilbao. We eventually decided to play the card of a sprint with the latter.
It would be a sprint for second though, as Jean-Albert Carnevali won the stage from the breakaway. It's the very first as a pro for this young man.
Intxausti winning the sprint meant we would miss out on everything we could've traveled here for. He missed the stage and the points jersey (by 3), Seba missed a GC top 10 and we missed the team standings by 20".
The long awaited stage to Covadonga demanded a climber-stuffed break, which is exactly what happened. Above 11-man group featured Rabottini, Rolland, Power, Bouchereau, Tvetcov, Valverde, Je. Herrada & Chávarri.
Having dealt with Puerto del Torno, the group had let go of two riders. At the foot of the final climb to Lagos de Covadonga, ten had this promising lead of close to seven minutes. Time for yet another win on our counter?
Robert Power did not feel like waiting for someone else to take the upper hand, so he accelerated himself. It didn't result in an immediate reaction.
In the meantime Vandenborre, backed by an amazingly strong Klever, put the rest under pressure. With 6.5 left he'd put 55" into the GC group. Kudus and Poels were the first who intended to do something about that.
Chávarri, Bouchereau shaked Briganti and Rolland, then caught up with Power. With 5 km left, the 15th stage was likely to go one of these three.
Kudus and Poels both fell back, while Kelderman almost made the catch.
Power, Bouchereau couldn't follow the pace anymore either; 900m to go.
Eder does it again! First there was Alpe d'Huez, and now Covadonga too!
Sam finished in 7th, as Kelderman gave everything to limit the time loss.
The breakaway didn't look as strong as yesterday's, but it did include GC 7th Dan Martin, Giro stage winner Cameron Meyer and Rohan Dennis. At the first summit, the Irishman had accomplished a virtual move into red.
IAM and Sunweb teamed up to reduce the lead. On the third climb, Sam was spot off the back of the bunch. To make things even worse he would hit the road in a painfully literal way on the descent. He lost about 5 min.
A thoroughly thinned GC group was about to join the Martin group on the penultimate climb, Puerto de San Lorenzo. Kudus, Meintjes, Poels had let go of jersey rojo Wilco Kelderman. Sam was being supported by Klever.
The groups merged, and the pace dropped. This allowed Cameron Meyer to attack as, Kelderman came back. The latter then broke clear alongside Kudus, Poels, Alaphilippe. Sam was climbing steadily, 4'10" behind them.
Approaching the final climb to La Farrapona, an unknown reason caused the understanding to be totally messed up. The overall contenders' group grew in numbers, but Sam was not allowed to catch up. As he was about to, Kelderman opted for another attack shadowed by overall third Kudus.
That group came back together one final time, then Kelderman dealt the final blow. Sam had a 7 km battle ahead when he saw multiple go clear.
Cam Meyer disregarded the GC, and bagged a second GT stage this year.
Kudus was the strongest of his group and came home in second. He even put exactly a minute into a fainting Kelderman on the ultimate kilometer.
Vandenborre's final place was 11th but the clock didn't have any mercy.
Ten riders were inspired by today's the flat-seldom-flat route. Flakemore, Denifl, Ledanois, Zurlo had seized a place out front. About halfway their lead, which would definitely suffice to fight for the stage win, was 21'30".
The bunch did leave a few of its riders along the road. Degenkolb, Coppel dropped out due to illness, while Julian Alaphilippe lost a valuable help in the French allrounder Arthur Vichot as a direct result of the latter's crash.
At the front, Jean-Philippe Bourret used the final bump to his advantage. Federico had to let go of the group, the remaining eight tried to bridge.
Ledanois came closest to doing so. Under the kite, he was 15" in arrears.
Bourret spiced up his team's season with a maiden pro win; no GC shifts.
Vuelta a España (GT.UWT) 
Tour of Alberta (2.1) 
