Britain’s Matthew Brennan expressed his disbelief at the extreme heat riders had to endure on Sunday during stage 15 of the Vuelta a España. His Visma Lease a Bike teammate Wout van Aert took a sprint win in Córdoba after the stage was shortened because of high temperatures. Brennan said: “It’s not great, but we do it, and that’s the show we put on.
But it wouldn’t surprise me if there were a few bodies coming home tonight with heatstroke.” Van Aert claimed his second victory in three stages after winning a five-rider sprint. The Belgian covered every attack from his four breakaway companions in the closing kilometres before producing a late surge just before the finish line to beat Alessandro Romele, of XDS Astana, and Lidl-Trek’s Thibau Nys. We were still there with a few strong guys, and I knew people would not expect the attack.
I smelled the moment on the intermediate sprint and with Matthew [Brennan] behind there was no risk to try,” Van Aert said. That’s how I like to race.” The race leader Enric Mas and his main general classification rivals finished together after Movistar controlled the chase behind the decisive breakaway and Mas will carry the red jersey into the second rest day on Monday.
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