Vuelta a Espana 2015: Stage 13 Winner, Highlights, Updated Standings, Schedule

Nelson Oliveira took the biggest stage win of his career on Friday, finishing solo in the streets of Tarazona to grab Stage 13 of the 2015 Vuelta a Espana. The time-trial specialist spent the day riding at the front as part of an early break and timed his jump to perfection, building a massive lead inside the final kilometres.

Julien Simon and Nicolas Roche finished in second and third place, while Fabio Aru comfortably held on to the lead in the overall standings. Here are the full results:

Pos	Rider	Time
1	Nelson Oliveira (Por) Lampre-Merida	4:14:01
2	Julien Simon (Fra) Cofidis, Solutions Credits	0:01:00
3	Nicolas Roche (Irl) Team Sky	Same Time
4	Sylvain Chavanel (Fra) IAM Cycling	Same Time
5	Jose Joaquin Rojas (Spa) Movistar Team	Same Time
6	Rinaldo Nocentini (Ita) AG2R La Mondiale	Same Time
7	Kevin Reza (Fra) FDJ.fr	Same Time
8	Mikael Cherel (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale	Same Time
9	Cameron Meyer (Aus) Orica-GreenEdge	Same Time
10	Maxime Monfort (Bel) Lotto Soudal	Same Time

Pos	Rider	Rime
1	Fabio Aru (Ita) Astana Pro Team	51:33:19
2	Joaquim Rodriguez (Spa) Team Katusha	0:00:27
3	Tom Dumoulin (Ned) Team Giant-Alpecin	0:00:30
4	Rafal Majka (Pol) Tinkoff-Saxo	0:01:28
5	Esteban Chaves (Col) Orica-GreenEdge	0:01:29
6	Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar Team	0:01:52
7	Daniel Moreno Fernandez (Spa) Team Katusha	0:01:54
8	Mikel Nieve (Spa) Team Sky	0:01:58
9	Gianluca Brambilla (Ita) Etixx - Quick-Step	0:02:51
10	Romain Sicard (Fra) Team Europcar	0:02:51

The profile for Friday's stage looks perfect for the more adventurous riders, as a strong early break would always have a chance to survive until the finish line in Tarazona.

As reported by Cycling News, the big story ahead of Friday's stage was Nairo Quintana's illness, as the favourites for this year's Vuelta continue to struggle. Tour de France winner Chris Froome has already abandoned the race, and things weren't looking great for Quintana, either, via cycling writer Mikkel Conde:

"

Sounds like Quintana is having a hard time on the bike again today. A big shame for the race if he has to quit this early too. #LaVuelta

— Mikkel Condé v2.0 (@mrconde) September 4, 2015"

A group of 24 riders managed to break free from the peloton, including Niki Terpstra, Maxime Monfort and Oliveira. In the background, Katusha and Astana worked together to keep their lead relatively small, but as the riders approached the finale, the three-minute buffer appeared safe.

On the final climb of the day, Oliveira and Sylvain Chavanel tried to break together, while Monfort and Pawel Poljanski tried to go solo. It was the Pole who arrived at the summit first with a 15-second lead, but the other riders caught up during the descent.

Now it was Olveira's turn, countering an attack from Romain Sicard and quickly building a 16-second lead. His team, Merida Pro Road Racing, reminded everyone he's perfectly capable of maintaining high speeds on his own:

The Portuguese rider quickly found his pace and started to increase his lead over the small group behind him, a good sign with 10 kilometres left to ride.

In the background, Roche was nearly involved in yet another incident with a team car, but unlike Peter Sagan, he managed to avoid disaster just in time, as shared by this fan:

Terpstra did everything he could to organise the chase, but Oliveira had two team-mates in the break, and they did a fantastic job of blocking any kind of rhythm. His lead touched the minute-mark with six kilometres left, at which point it was clear no one was going to catch him.

It was hard not to notice the smile on Oliveira's face as he cruised through the streets of Tarazona, enjoying every second of those final kilometres before lifting his arms to claim the win. The time-trial specialist hasn't won that many stage races in his career, so a win in a race as big as the Vuelta has to feel special.

The Inner Ring shared this great image of the moment he crossed the line:

Roche seemed very disappointed when he crossed the finish line in third place, but afterwards, he took to Twitter to explain how great it feels to be attacking again, as opposed to focus only on working for Froome:

The pack crossed the finish line almost five minutes after Oliveira did, and while Quintana managed to survive the day, he did lose his spot in the top 10. 

The peloton returns to the high mountains on Saturday, with an uphill finish at Alto Campoo Fuente del Chivo, a long but relatively harmless climb that shouldn't cause the favourites for the general classification too much trouble.

It's the first of three straight days of climbing, and this is where the battle for the general classification will truly be decided. Aru has the advantage and should comfortably survive Saturday's stage, but the next few days will be tough.

Sunday's and Monday's stages look like a real challenge, and armed with that knowledge, expect the peloton not to waste too much energy on Saturday. Riders looking to make their mark with an early break should be eyeing this stage more than any other.

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