Vuelta 2015 stage 19: 22-yo Gougeard soloes to victory, Dumoulin puts 3 more seconds into Aru

In 185.5 kilometres stage 19 leads from Medina del Campo to Avila. Alexis Gougeard attacks in the front group at the Puerto de la Paramera and in 30 kilometres he soloes to victory. The GC-contenders are a quarter of an hour down, but once at the cobbled climb leading into Ávila leader Tom Dumoulin leaves his rival Fabio Aru and he powers to a 3 seconds win. Purito and Majka lose even more time. (Slideshow route/profile)

Results 19th stage Vuelta

1. Alexis Gougeard (fra)
2. Nelson Oliveira (por) + 0.40
3. Maxime Monfort (bel) + 0.44
4. Andrey Amador (crc) s.t.
5. Tiago Machado (por) s.t.
6. Amaël Moinard (fra) s.t.
7. Fabio Duarte (col) + 0.53
8. David Arroyo (spa) + 1.03
9. Christian Knees (ger) + 1.17
10. Fran Ventoso (fra) s.t.

25. Tom Dumoulin (nld) + 16.18
26. Daniel Moreno (spa) s.t.
28. Fabio Aru (ita) + 16.21
29. Alejandro Valverde (spa) + 16.27
32. Mikel Nieve (spa) s.t.
33. Rafal Majka (pol) s.t.
34. Nairo Quintana (col) s.t.
36. Joaquim Rodriguez (spa) s.t.
37. Esteban Chaves (col) s.t.

GC after stage 19
1. Tom Dumoulin (nld)
2. Fabio Aru (ita) + 0.06
3. Joaquim Rodriguez (spa) + 1.24
4. Rafal Majka (pol) + 2.31
5. Nairo Quintana (col) + 3.02
6. Alejandro Valverde (spa) + 3.24
7. Esteban Chaves (spa) + 3.39
8. Daniel Moreno (spa) + 3.46
9. Mikel Nieve (spa) + 4.19
10. Louis Meintjes (rsa) + 7.00

Race report
Once the flag is dropped, the race is on! Many riders try to get clear without success until 24 riders hit it off good. Aboard are Nelson Oliveira, Jérôme Coppel, Tosh Van der Sande, Maxime Monfort, Andrey Amador, David Arroyo, Christian Knees, Alexis Gougeard, Amaël Moinard, Ricardo Vilela, Cyril Lemoine, Fabio Duarte, Leonardo Duque, Juan Pablo Valencia, Maxime Bouet, Mickael Delage, Francisco Ventoso, Natnael Berhane, Ben King, Jimmy Engoulvent, Tiago Machado, Eduard Vorganov, Pavel Brutt and Markel Irizar. They race to a maximum advantage of 18 minutes.

The winner is in the front group, that’s for sure. The pack takes it easy and the gap never goes down to a quarter of an hour.

Tiago Machado goes solo with over 35 km’s left and Gougeard and Duque bridge the gap. 22-yo Gougeard leaves his companions at the Puerto de la Paramera, while Montfort, Moinard and Amador are chasing. Machado joins the trio, but its all in vain as Gougeard doesnt’t wink and he powers to the best victory in his young career.

Tom Dumoulin attacks on the cobbled climb leading into Avila. Aru has to let go, while Purito and Majka are nowhere to be seen. Dumoulin powers on and Pozzovivo helps Aru to hold the gap at 3 seconds, otherwise the Italian would have suffered a more severe blow.