Fabio Aru wins the 2015 Vuelta a Espana

Italian rider Fabio Aru has won his first Grand Tour wrapping up the 2015 Vuelta a Espana, the victory was sealed on Saturday’s stage 20 for the Astana rider has he turned a 6 second deficit to leader Tom Dumoulin at the start of the stage to a 1 minute, 17 second lead over Joaquim Rodriguez by the end of the stage. Fabio Aru had attacked the slender lead that Tom Dumoulin held since winning the stage 17 time trial over the following stages but it wasn’t until the penultimate stage that Dumoulin cracked tumbling out of the lead back to sixth place. The 25 year old Fabio Aru only had to complete the final ceremonial stage won by John Degenkolb to win his first Grand Tour at only his fifth attempt, following his two podiums in the Giro d’Italia including second in this year’s Giro.

How the race unfolded

The Vuelta has a habit of throwing up surprises, usually an unexpected winner or a performance we didn’t see coming. The start of the race this year wanted it’s share of the controversy as first the rider and team protests about the stage forced it not to count towards the overall tour results, then on stage 2 Vincenzo Nibali and Astana had what can only be called a moment of panic and something they would later regret as Nibali received a huge tow from the team car from one bunch to another as he was trying to chase back on.

Caleb Ewan

Caleb Ewan will remember the 2015 Vuelta for all the right reasons as he took his first ever Grand Tour win on stage 5 ahead of John Degenkolb and Peter Sagan.

This is by far the best day of my career, to beat some of the top sprinters in the world, especially riders like Degenkolb or Sagan, on a climbing finish like that, that means a lot to me. – Caleb Ewan

Tom Dumoulin

Tom Dumoulin took the overall for the first time on stage 5 to lead by 1 second from Esteban Chaves only to lose the lead again on the following stage. On stage 9 Dumoulin stunned observers by distancing Tour de France winner Chris Froome on the steep finish to Puig Llorença winning the stage by 2 seconds from Froome and taking nearly a minute overall lead ahead of Joaquim Rodriguez.

Fabio Aru and Astana came out firing after the first rest day with Astana taking first and second in stage 11, Mikel Landa won with Aru finishing second an taking enough time from Tom Dumoulin to take the leaders jersey. The big question over the stages before the individual time trial on stage 17 was how much of a lead Aru could build to hold off time trial specialist Dumoulin.

Dumoulin won the time trial as expected as Aru finished 10th only 1 minute 53 seconds behind and therefore a deficit of only 3 seconds to Dumoulin who regain the lead for a third time.

Fabio Aru – Stage 20

Ruben Plaza took an impressive solo win but the real action was further back on the road as Astana and Aru attacked the lead of Tom Dumoulin dropping the dutch rider who was alone without team mates, Dumoulin dropping from the lead of the race to sixth overall. Meanwhile Fabio Aru followed Joaquin Rodriguez over the finish line to take his first Grand Tour win. Joaquin Rodriguez finished second overall while Rafal Majka rounded out the podium positions

2014 Vuelta a Espana Leaderboard

Results of the 2015 Vuelta a Espana

Main image via JA MIGUELEZ. © JA Miguelez / Unipublic

TBL – The Bike Lane