Van Aert took the stage in what the time sheet calls a sprint but what any honest observer would call a controlled demolition — a man of his dimensions winning in a group finish is less a surprise than a reminder that the sport occasionally produces riders who shouldn't exist. He survived whatever the Vuelta threw at him today not by outrunning the mountains but by outlasting them, arriving at the finish with enough left to make the sprint a formality rather than a contest. Romele and Nys at second and third tells you the day's survivors were riders built for transition stages — neither is a pure sprinter, neither a pure climber, which means the peloton's genuine finishers and GC men likely shed themselves somewhere on the road before this group formed. What tomorrow demands will matter more than today's arithmetic — the Vuelta collects its debts in the final week.
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🏁 VUELTA A ESPAÑA — Stage 15
🥇 VAN AERT Wout (VLB) (2:35:00)
🥈 ROMELE Alessandro (XAT)
🥉 NYS Thibau (LTK)