Vuelta a Espana: Joaquim Rodriguez wins stage 15 but misses out on lead

Joaquim Rodriguez launched his stage-winning attack with 1km to go

Joaquim Rodriguez climbed to a solo victory on stage 15 of the Vuelta a Espana but narrowly missed out on replacing Fabio Aru as the overall leader.

Rodriguez (Katusha) attacked out of an elite group of favourites with 1km of the climb to the summit finish on Alto de Sotres remaining and pulled away to win by 12 seconds from runner-up Rafal Majka (Tinkoff-Saxo) and 14 seconds from third-placed Daniel Moreno (Katusha).

Aru (Astana), who began the day 26 seconds ahead of Rodriguez, initially started chasing the 36-year-old Spaniard down but then cracked and finished 15 seconds behind in fifth place.

Fabio Aru (left) finished just behind Nairo Quintana in fifth place on the day

Rodriguez picked up 10 bonus seconds for his win, but it wasn't enough to take the red jersey and he is now one second behind Aru in the general classification.

Majka's performance saw him move up one place into third, 1min 24sec down on Aru and just one second ahead of Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin), who was dropped on the final climb but limited his losses to winner Rodriguez to 51 seconds.

Rodriguez, who has now won nine Vuelta stages in his career but has never taken overall victory in a grand tour, told Eurosport: "I'm very happy to have this win. I feel very good. For me this is one of the best Vueltas I have done. I'm calm and I'm riding within my limits."

Rodriguez picked up the ninth Vuelta stage win of his career

Nairo Quintana endured a day of mixed fortunes. He launched an unsuccessful attack at the foot of the final climb and was later dropped by Rodriguez's attack, but he then recovered to finish fourth on the day, just ahead of Aru.

The Vuelta continues on Monday with a 185km 16th stage from Luarca to Ermita de Alba, which ends with the third of three back-to-back summit finishes.

Stage 15 result

1 Joaquim Rodriguez (Esp) Katusha, 4:33:31

2 Rafal Majka (Pol) Tinkoff-Saxo, +12sec

3 Daniel Moreno (Esp) Katusha, +14

4 Nairo Quintana (Col) Movistar, +15

5 Fabio Aru (Ita) Astana, same time

6 Mikel Landa (Esp) Astana, +18

7 Esteban Chaves (Col) Orica-GreenEdge, +20

8 Mikel Nieve (Esp) Team Sky, +24

9 Alejandro Valverde (Esp) Movistar, +29

10 Domenico Pozzovivo (Ita) Ag2r-La Mondiale, +41

Selected other

12 Tom Dumoulin (Ned) Giant-Alpecin, +51

General classification

1 Fabio Aru (Ita) Astana, 61:53:56

2 Joaquim Rodriguez (Esp) Katusha, +1sec

3 Rafal Majka (Pol) Tinkoff-Saxo, +1:24

4 Tom Dumoulin (Ned) Giant-Alpecin, +1:25

5 Esteban Chaves (Col) Orica-GreenEdge, +1:34

6 Daniel Moreno (Esp) Katusha, +2:08

7 Mikel Nieve (Esp) Team Sky, +2:19

8 Alejandro Valverde (Esp) Movistar, +2:25

9 Nairo Quintana (Col) Movistar, +3:00

10 Louis Meintjes (RSA) MTN-Qhubeka, +5:07