Vuelta a Espana 2015: Stage 16 Results, Latest Standings and Highlights

Frank Schleck grabbed the win in Stage 16 of the 2015 Vuelta a Espana on Monday, spending the entire day as part of a break before finishing solo on the Ermita de Alba.   

The veteran and his fellow leaders were given a huge lead of up to 20 minutes by the peloton, who were more focused on the battle for the general classification.

Joaquim Rodriguez overtook Fabio Aru at the top of the standings, while Tom Dumoulin limited his losses to 28 seconds. The Dutchman is by far the most talented time trialist of the group, and he'll like his chances of grabbing the lead on Wednesday.

As shard by CafeRoubaix, Monday's win was a special one for Schleck:

Here are the results from Monday's stage, as well as the updated standings:

Pos	Rider	Time
1	Frank Schleck (Lux) Trek Factory Racing	5:49:56
2	Rodolfo Torres (Col) Colombia	0:01:10
3	Moreno Moser (Ita) Cannondale-Garmin Pro Cycling Team	0:01:48
4	George Bennett (NZl) Team LottoNL-Jumbo	0:02:42
5	Pierre Rolland (Fra) Team Europcar	0:02:49
6	Omar Fraile (Spa) Caja Rural-Seguros RGA	0:03:05
7	Carlos Verona Quintanilla (Spa) Etixx - Quick-Step	0:04:26
8	Larry Warbasse (USA) IAM Cycling	0:06:02
9	Joaquim Rodriguez (Spa) Team Katusha	0:08:51
10	Fabio Aru (Ita) Astana Pro Team	0:08:53

With Dumoulin sitting dangerously close to the top of the standings, the teams riding for the top riders were unwilling to take any chances on Monday. A group of riders broke from the peloton early, and Katusha, Movistar and Astana had no interest whatsoever in chasing them down.

The group included names like Schleck and Pierre Rolland, star climbers more than capable of finishing off a long break, but with none of those riders anywhere near the leaders in the standings, no one chased. As a result, their lead took on ridiculous proportions before long.

Eurosport's Felix Lowe weighed in on the matter:

Katusha tried to organise a chasing group once every while, but after a few kilometers of chasing on their own, they would regroup and allow the leaders to build their lead once again. By the time they got to the Alto de Tenebredo, it was safe to assume the leaders would battle it out for the stage win, with the favourites focusing on the classification.

CafeRoubaix gave his predictions:

Polka-dot leader Omar Fraile managed to slip with the break and took top honours on just about every climb along the way, all but ensuring he'll win the mountain classification if he finishes this year's Vuelta.

The first four climbs passed without any major incidents in the peloton, where Astana dropped back remarkably deep, given the fact the team was still riding for race leader Aru. Instead, it was all Katusha, knowing full well the final climb of the day was almost tailor-made for Rodriguez.

Tinkoff-Saxo soon joined them at the front, and with the two teams working together, the peloton started to fall apart. Team Giant-Alpecin lost several riders, which was exactly what the rest of the pack wanted, as it made Dumoulin weaker.

Procyclingnews.eu put it this way:

At the front, Schleck and Rodolfo Torres managed to drop the rest of the breakaway on the Alto de la Cobertoria, the penultimate climb, while Astana completely tore the peloton apart in the background. Halfway through the climb, just 20 riders remained.

Schleck seemed the stronger of the two riders and did most of the work early on the Ermite de Alba, even urging his companion to take the lead once every while, but on the steeper sections, the veteran started to struggle. As shared by Lotto Soudal, that was bad news, given the ridiculous profile of the final climb:

While not as long as the mythical Angliru, Ermita de Alba is just as steep, and most fans and pundits assumed the winner of the general classification would be decided during this ascent.

With the cameras focused on the group of favourites, Schleck launched an attack out of nowhere on Torres and immediately built a solid lead. The 35-year-old took his time in the final corners, knowing how the others were behind him, before grabbing his first major win since his suspension in 2013.

In the background, Alejandro Valverde and Domenico Pozzovivo were the first favourites to be dropped when Mikel Landa started to push the pace, but Dumoulin returned to the group after losing contact earlier—a strong performance from the Dutchman.

He would eventually be dropped when Rodriguez attacked but lost limited time, giving himself a good chance to win the Vuelta in the upcoming time trial. VeloCast's Scott O'Raw liked what he saw:

Things exploded inside the final kilometer, as Rodriguez put a gap between himself and Aru, grabbing the red jersey in the process. Aru, in turn, put some distance between himself and Majka. But Global Cycling Network's Neal Rogers thought there were only two winners on Monday:

As reported by Cycling News' live blog of the stage, Dumoulin was more than happy to lose just 28 seconds on the day: "That was much better than expected. I didn't feel so good on the first cat climb, it went really fast, but I was never really in trouble and i thought, 'ah we'll give it a go on the last climb'. I had really good legs, to lose 28 seconds is really really good, still everything is open."

As things stand, he'll have to make up one minute and 51 seconds during the time trial on Wednesday. While that's a significant amount of time, neither Rodriguez nor Aru are gifted time trialists, whereas Dumoulin won the bronze medal during last year's World Championships.

The peloton will enjoy their second rest day of this year's Vuelta on Tuesday, before the all-important time trial on Wednesday. After that, there will be two more transitional stages with limited options for the favourites to gain time, followed by a massive Stage 20, littered with categorised climbs toward Cercedilla.

Depending on how well Dumoulin does in the time trial and how close Aru and Rodriguez can keep it, we could have three leaders within seconds of each other heading into the penultimate stage. This year's Vuelta is starting to look like it could be one of the closest finishes in recent history, with the action set to continue on Wednesday.

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