Vuelta a Espana 2023: Rui Costa times sprint to perfection to take Stage 15 victory

Rui Costa (Intermarché–Circus–Wanty) outfoxed the Vuelta a Espana breakaway on stage 15 to take his first victory at a Grand Tour since stage 19 of the 2023 Tour de France in what was an incredibly exciting day of racing.

The former World Champion employed the some of the same cunning racecraft that saw him take the rainbow bands ten years ago by refusing to work with Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain Victorious) on the climb and backing his sprint in the final kilometre after finessing all the way down the final descent.

Lennard Kamna (Bora-Hansgrohe) had gained a small gap on Buitrago and Costa, but crashed after overshooting a corner on the descent into Lekunberri.

The German was brought back into the fold by Costa’s shenanigans at the head of race and he came close to the victory in the sprint, but he couldn’t hold off the wily Portuguese rider’s sprint to the line.

This is Costa’s fourth professional victory for Intermarché–Circus–Wanty, and his most in a season since that golden 2013 campaign.

Action kicked off right from the flag with Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) the most active, but the Belgian ran out of steam on the final climb and couldn’t live with Costa, Buitrago and Kamna, settling for fourth on the stage a day after his wonderful victory.

The GC group arrived safely at the finish with Sepp Kuss (Jumbo-VIsma) keeping the red jersey with the race going into its second rest day tomorrow.

Stage 15 started in Pamplona, but there weren’t any bulls for the riders to worry about, only a charging Belgian spurred on by his stage victory yesterday and ready to hunt for more. Remco Evenepoel.

Evenepoel kicked off the racing with a bang alongside Andreas Kron (Lotto-Dstny) and Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers) who were also active in the early phases, and after a rapid opening 60km a big break began to get away.

Behind the action was heating up as Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates) tried to light up the GC battle, forcing Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) to mark him and join the break.

Evenepoel and co were unhappy with the GC riders infiltrating the move as it meant the whole Jumbo-Visma contingent were working to bring them back.

This prompted the Belgian Champion to re-attack and slip away from the larger group with Costa and Cristian Rodriguez (Arke Samsic).

The break was now forming in front with Jumbo-Visma putting up a block in the peloton and only allowing riders they weren’t worried about into the move.

Multiple riders bridged up to Evenepoel and Costa’s group, eventually forming a group of 15 that seemed set to fight for the stage victory, including Kamna, Buitrago and Kron.

The only remaining challenge came from a curious decision by Alpecin-Deceuninck to begin chasing in aid of Kaden Groves’ sprinting ambitions, but they would not make any significant inroads into the leader groups’ advantage, and would actually only lose time on the climbs.

Chris Hamilton (DSM-Firmenich) was one of the first to attack the break, trying to gain an advantage ahead of the final climb up the Puerto de Zuarrate with Jimmy Janssens (Alpecin-Deceuninck) following suit on the lower slopes.

Janssens provided the carrot for Costa and Buitrago to chase, with the catch being made 14km from the line and the Belgian quickly being unable to stay with them.

Behind everyone looked at Evenepoel before Kamna realised the defending Vuelta champion didn’t have it today, forcing him to make the junction to the two in front on his own.

Once Kamna made it to the front of the race, only a descent stood in the trio’s way of the victory and it was clear Costa was using every trick in the book to save energy: skipping turns, finessing, pretending he didn’t have it until a significant move slipped away.

The chess continued all the way down the final descent before Kamna eventually got away as Buitrago became fed up and let the German get a gap.

He was well on his way to possibly taking another stage victory at this year’s Vuelta, before overshooting one of the final corners and crashing into the grass.

Kamna’s chances seemed to be gone, but as Costa and Buitrago continued to bicker, the German was coming back into the frame, ready to fight out the final sprint.

Costa stayed calm and slipped onto his wheel before Buitrago kicked force and with Kamna using all the adrenaline from the crash to muster enough energy up for a final kick he came close, but couldn’t fend off the charge from Costa who took the stage.

It was a dramatic end to a thrilling stage, with Evenepoel and the rest of the break finishing just 2 seconds down despite cresting the climb some 30 seconds behind the leaders.

The GC battle saw no action with the final climb much too easy for those to make any difference meaning they go into the second rest day with Kuss, Roglic and Vingegaard still in the top three spots and looking comfortable to take an historic 1-2-3 finish at the Vuelta a Espana.