Trek Factory Racing’s veteran Haimar Zubeldia joined the principal escape group in stage 15, which again took almost an hour of furious racing to create.  The strong climber, the elder in this year’s Vuelta a España, had his ticket punched and joined the 9-man train that set out on a long, hard track to fight for the win.

The group worked well together, but behind Movistar had ambitions of stage glory, too. Movistar kept the runaway group close, letting them gain no more than five minutes until slowly they reduced the gap to 1 minute and 10 seconds by the start of the 12-kilometer finish climb.

“We knew straight from the start that Movistar and Katusha would control the race, but it was still worth a try,” said Zubeldia. ”It worked yesterday, so why not today? For the first part they never gave us more than three minutes, and on the second climb the lead increased a little bit. But we needed a few minutes more by the last climb.”

The lead was small, a long, tough mountain climb loomed, but Zubeldia was undeterred. As his breakaway companions attacked, the experienced climber patiently waited until the moment was right, and then accelerated; the group exploded and Zubeldia quickly caught and passed the last relic, Brayan Ramirez (Colombia), and set off for home.

Zubeldia’s cadence was graceful and smooth, belying the pain evident in his face. The kilometers ticked over: ten, nine, eight…he grew his 55-second lead to 1 minute and 5 seconds and the optimism he could pull this off also began to rise.

Then the action kicked into a higher gear behind and the gap began to tumble. Fast.

In the final kilometers, the road pitched upward in a vicious 13 percent gradient and it was the final nail in the coffin for Zubeldia: less than 2000 meters from the end he was caught.

“I could feel during the race that I was the strongest climber in the break, and it all came down to the last climb,” continued Zubeldia. “If they have given us two minutes more I could have done it. I am a climber that needs to find his rhythm, and Josu [Larrazabal, director] told me to find my rhythm and just give everything I had.

“I went full gas until they caught me. The gap was at a minute for a while and was not coming down. Then all of sudden it dropped quickly, but both Josu and Dirk kept giving me a lot of hope and motivation over the radio.

“We quickly realized that the peloton would not let us really go when they maintained the gap around three minutes. We tried to take it easy before accelerating in the second part of the stage. The gap rose up to five minutes but they reacted again. We had 1:30 at the start of the final climb but I knew the end would be very hard with those very steep parts.

"I did not start this Vuelta in the best conditions after being treated with antibiotics between Tour and Vuelta. I will try my luck again. "

Zubeldia ended in 20th place, two minutes after eventual winner Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha). It was a beautiful effort, showing sparks of bygone days, but after spending nearly 135 kilometers in the lead, the Basque cyclist succumbed to fresher legs.

“I believed in it for a while, but I needed more time,” added Zubeldia. “It’s too bad, but it was good to give it a try. I am not used to race like this, usually I am defending GC  [Zubeldia has finished 5 times in the top 10 at the Tour de France – ed] that is what I am known for. But this Vuelta is different with Fränk [Schleck] no longer in the GC.

“Dirk [Demol, director] had told me to save energy where possible and not go full gas to try and stay with the GC favorites everyday so that I would have a chance in a breakaway like today.  I have been targeting today as a good stage for me.

“But it’s not finished, there are more hard stages to come, already tomorrow again, and I will try again. Maybe next time they will give us more time and something nice will come out of it."