The 15th stage of the Vuelta a Espana saw Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) reign supreme on the steep slopes of the Alto de Sotres. Rafal Majka (Tinkoff-Saxo) was 2nd with Daniel Moreno (Katusha) rounding out the stage podium.

Louis Meintjes put in another stellar ride as he climbed back into the top 10 in the overall classification after claiming 11th on the stage. MTN-Qhubeka p/b Samsung were in the spotlight for the majority of the stage as Natnael Berhane made the break of the day with 8 other riders.

Their advantage hovered around 2 minutes for most of the day as Movistar decided to lead the chase from very early on. After the break got slightly frustrated with Movistar chasing so hard so early, they sat up, but then so did the peloton. Once the break got going again they then forged out 4 minutes but it was not going to be enough time as Astana set a fast pace on the final 11.7km climb.

In the end, Berhane was the penultimate rider to be caught with 6km to go as the GC favourites started to have a go at each other. Meintjes rode an intelligent race and just followed the wheels to cross the line 11th, +41" on the stage victor.

“It was another nervy day with quite a lot of wind. Movistar controlled the race for most of the day, it looked their guys were confident about going for the stage win. For us, we had Natnael up the road and so the rest of the guys supported me really well all day up to the climb. From there I just it gave it my best. I am happy with how things worked out,” Meintjes said.