Vuelta a Espana 2015: Results, Highlights, Standings After Saturday's Stage 14

Alessandro De Marchi finished solo to win Stage 14 of the 2015 Vuelta a Espana on Saturday, winning the first of three consecutive stages in the high mountains. The three days of heavy climbing should decide this year's overall winner.

The Italian spent the day as part of a group of five riders given a huge lead by the peloton and managed to hold off the opposition during the final climb. The favourites mostly finished close together, with Nairo Quintana stealing a few seconds and Tom Dumoulin losing big. Fabio Aru remains the leader.

Here are Saturday's results and the updated standings:

Saturday's stage was the first of three straight stages in the high mountains, but with the next two days looking more challenging, most expected the favourites for the general classification to be patient.

Before the start of the stage, Tour de France winner Chris Froome took to Twitter to make fun of his broken foot, the injury that forced him to put an end to his bid to become the first rider to do the Tour/Vuelta double since Bernard Hinault in 1978:

Several riders tried to push for an early break, knowing full well the peloton would take it slow on Saturday, with two more days of climbing ahead. After a number of efforts, five riders finally found the gap: De Marchi, Salvatore Puccio, Jose Joaquin Rojas, Mikael Cherel and Carlos Quintero.

None of those riders was a threat to Aru's red jersey, so the peloton was happy to let them steal the spotlight. Their lead grew at an incredible pace, shocking even VeloVoices at one point:

Astana and Movistar jumped to the front of the peloton with 50 kilometres left to race, but by that time the gap was nearly nine minutes. One of the five would win Stage 14, with the top riders in the peloton shifting their focus to the general classification.

At the front, De Marchi seemed the freshest, while both Aru and Alejandro Valverde took short breaks before being led back to the peloton. Both need to dominate in the high mountains and find a way to drop Dutch time-trial specialist Dumoulin, who could make up a ton of time on the flat roads.

The pace was remarkably slow, leading to an early attack from Angel Madrazo. Movistar didn't react to the attack, choosing to focus on Valverde and Quintana, who could both still win this year's Vuelta.

Cycling blogger Mihai Cazacu was shocked to see the Colombian riding at the front of the peloton, given the illness that slowed him down the last couple of days:

Luis Leon Sanchez opened up for Astana, and his effort immediately paid off, as a large part of the peloton was dropped. All of the favourites managed to keep up, however, setting the stage for an exciting last few kilometres.

At the front, the riders remained remarkably cautious, refusing to attack during the first kilometres of the climb. Cherel was the first to give it a go, immediately dropping Puccio, but the gentle gradient meant De Marchio and Quintero had little difficulty keeping up.

The same applied in the peloton, where Astana set a furious pace that did enough to drop the domestiques but none of the favourites.

Puccio somehow made it back to the front and immediately launched an attack, forcing De Marchi to once again close the gap. Meanwhile, Aru took matters into his own hands, launching an attack on his competitors for the red jersey.

VeloVoices didn't see that coming: 

De Marchi took a healthy lead at the front within the final kilometre and easily grabbed the stage, but all eyes were on the favourites at this point. Quintana followed Aru's wheel, while Dumoulin, Valverde and Johan Esteban Chaves couldn't keep up.

Aru cracked during the last kilometres, allowing Joaquim Rodriguez to return to the front and Quintana to create a little gap, but ultimately the gaps were minor at the finish line. The lone exception was Dumoulin, who lost 20 seconds on the red jersey.

Quintana's chances of winning this year's Vuelta looked all but gone after he struggled during Friday's stage, and while he still trails Aru by a significant margin, his performance on Saturday was encouraging. As shared by cycling commentator Jose Been, he's not ready to give up yet:

Sunday's stage looks as if it won't test the peloton too much until the riders reach the final climb, the Alto de Sotres. While it's not particularly long and not too steep on average, the roads flatten out between two ridiculously steep sections, which should give the explosive climbers the chance to break and gain minutes in the standings.

With two weeks of racing already in the legs, this is the kind of tricky climb that could break a rider. Fail to make the grade here and your chances of winning the 2015 Vuelta have all but vanished.

Follow @ReverschPass