Vuelta a España stage 15: Rafał Majka scores huge solo victory in long-range mountain raid

Rafał Majka (UAE Team Emirates) went on the attack early in the rollercoaster stage and rode solo for 87 kilometers to score a huge win in stage 15 of the Vuelta a España.

Steven Kruijswijk (Jumbo-Visma) placed second after his own solo effort, chasing out of the break with 60km remaining. Chris Hamilton finished third, continuing Team DSM’s streak of success at this race.

The victory was Majka’s first in four years, with his last coming in the 2017 Vuelta.

After spending several seasons acting as superdomestique at Bora-Hansgrohe and more recently playing a major part in Tadej Pogačar’s 2021 Tour de France title, Majka relished every moment of his hard-fought victory. The 31-year-old was able to enjoy the final kilometers of his long lonely ride, gesturing to the camera and celebrating way in advance of the line.

“Sometimes you try and it’s not easy to get into the break, but today I tried from the start to the end, and I waited for nobody. I wanted to win the stage today, especially to win for my father … ach, and for my two kids, I’m so happy,” an emotional Majka said.

“I had a bad start of the season and it’s not been easy for me and my family, especially when my father died and I wanted to do it today for him and my kids, and for my team.”

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Odd Christian Eiking and his Intermarché-Wanty Gobert team made an impressive display of strength, setting a sizzling pace throughout the stage. David de la Cruz (UAE-Emirates) launched a speculative attack in the final 8km only to be marked by Intermarché-Wanty rider Louis Meintjes before the rest of the GC riders bridged.

Adam Yates (Ineos Grenadiers) attacked twice in the downward-tilting dash to the line and held off Jumbo-Visma’s chase to claw back 15 seconds in the GC battle.

Eiking, Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma) and the rest of the GC contenders all finished in the group behind Yates.

Majka escapes after huge battle for breakaway

The first 100km of the race played out at a red-hot pace as waves of attacks flew in the hopes of forming a breakaway.

Nearly every team in the race was aggressive in trying to make the escape before Majka went clear with Fabio Aru (Qhubeka NextHash) over the first climb of the day, with a bunch of 20 chasing behind.

Majka rode away from Aru at 87km to go and soloed to a solid 2:30 lead as the large group behind failed to coordinate the chase.

Kruijswijk escaped out of the stuttering breakaway group on the long grinding Mijares climb and started chasing after the charging Majka as the rest of the bunch of pursuers detonated, leaving riders scattered all over the mountain. Kruijswijk slowly chewed into Majka’s gap on the cat.1 ascent to bring it to around 90 seconds but failed to make further headway as the Pole continued his huge solo TT up and over the Mijares descent.

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Maka hit the base of the short final climb with a 1:35 gap over Kruijswijk and never looked like fading from there, finishing his epic escape 1:27 ahead of Kruijswijk.

Nárvaez, Reijnen abandon

There were two high-profile abandons Sunday. American rider Kiel Reijnen (Trek-Segafredo) abandoned after crashing earlier in the race. Jhonatan Nárvaez (Ineos Grenadiers) also pulled out, just the day after his Ecuadorian countryman and teammate Richard Carapaz quit the race with fatigue.