Andrea Guardini went into the Vuelta a Espana with the hope of contesting a few bunch sprints but bad luck has prevented him from doing a single one. Now his only goal is to finish the race while his teammate Fabio Aru is excelling in the mountain stages.

“Now for me the goal is to finish the Vuelta for the team," Andrea Guardini said after today's stage of the Vuelta a Espana. "to do that I need to pass the Queen Stage tomorrow."

Teammate Fabio Aru fought at the front of the mountain finish at Lagos de Covadonga – a famously steep climb in Asturias – and held with the elite raceleaders to rise to fifth overall in General Classification.

Sunday’s Lagos de Covadonga climb was the day’s true competition but Monday’s stage 16 has five top categorized climbs and could see the most dramatic activity in the race for General Classification.

Mikel Landa crashed on Sunday but recovered to finish and will start with no serious complications on Monday. Tanel Kangert has seen improvements to his digestion and overall condition. Alexey Lutsekno broke a tooth and spent a sleepless night after his day in the breakaway.