Vuelta 2015 stage 6: Esteban Chaves wins and is back in red

Stage 6 in the Vuelta leads in 200 kilometres to the charming white village Cazorla. Eventually the rolling landscape makes way for a 20 kilometres closing climb with steepest sections at 13% in the finale. At exactly those killer slopes Chaves attacks with 3 km's left and he soloes to the win. Dan Martin is second, Tom Dumoulin third. Chaves is back in red after today's bravery. (Slideshow route/profile)

Results 6th stage Vuelta

1. Esteban Chaves (col)
2. Daniel Martin (irl) + 0.05
3. Tom Dumoulin (nld) s.t.
4. Ruben Plaza (spa) + 0.11
5. Alejandro Valverde (spa) s.t.
6. Joaquim Rodriguez (spa) s.t.
7. Chris Froome (gbr) s.t.
8. Rafal Majka (pol) s.t.
9. Nairo Quintana (col) s.t.
10. Nicolas Roche (irl) s.t.
11. Fabio Aru (ita) s.t.
12. Mikel Landa (ita) s.t.

GC after stage 6
1. Esteban Chaves (col)
2. Tom Dumoulin (nld) + 0.10
3. Daniel Martin (irl) + 0.33
4. Nicolas Roche (irl) + 0.36
5. Alejandro Valverde (spa) + 0.49
6. Chris Froome (gbr) + 0.55
7. Daniel Moreno (spa) s.t.
8. Joaquim Rodriguez (spa) + 0.56
9. Nairo Quintana (col) + 0.57
10. Fabio Aru (ita) + 1.12

11. Mikel Landa (spa) + 1.12
13. Tejay van Garderen (usa) + 1.16

Race report
Once the flag is dropped, the pace is so high no rider can get away, but yet, attacks galore! Adam Hansen, Sylvain Chavanel, Peter Sagan… just to name a few. It’s only with 60 km’s done Cyril Gautier, Niki Terpstra, Kristijan Durasek, Peter Velits and Steven Cummings manage to force a gap. Rubiano joins them and the six riders keep pushing hard to reach a maximum advantage of 4’30” over the peloton.

Then the gap starts to cave and when it’s down to half a minute Cummings gives it a go with 12 km’s left. The gain goes back up to 1 minute, while his former companions are reeled in.

But once at the 3 km’s closing climb he is caught in no time when Esteban Chaves attacks at the 13% section. Leader Tom Dumoulin goes after the Colombian with 1.8 km’s left, but the small climber is too strong for the big Dutchman. Dan Martin joins Dumoulin and they finish second and third and the winner of the day is Chaves. He grabs both the stage and the leader’s jersey. Strong! Can he stand the heat in tomorrow’s mountain stage up into the Sierra Nevada?