page_title: 2015 Vuelta a España, Stage 12 to Stage 21
section_title: Stage 16
hierarchical_section_title: 2015 Vuelta a España, Stage 12 to Stage 21 / Stage 16
caption_attribution_description: D71_0068_DxO
context_page_description: The 2015 Vuelta a España was a three-week Grand Tour cycling race that took place principally in Spain between 22 August and 13 September 2015; two stages also took place partly or wholly in Andorra. The final ten stages took the race from the mountains of Andorra to the conclusion of the Vuelta in Madrid. After the first eleven stages, Fabio Aru held the race lead, around half a minute ahead of Joaquim Rodríguez and Tom Dumoulin.
  Stage 12 was a flat stage, won by Danny van Poppel. Stage 13 was won by Nelson Oliveira from the breakaway; it was followed by a series of three consecutive summit finishes. The first of these was won by Alessandro De Marchi, as Aru and Rodríguez gained time on Dumoulin. Rodríguez won stage 15, putting him just one second behind Aru, while Dumoulin again lost significant time. Stage 16 was the final summit finish of the race and the final stage of the second week. It was won by Fränk Schleck, again from the breakaway. Rodríguez gained further time on Aru and took over the race lead, though only by a single second, while Dumoulin again lost time. The following day was a rest day.
  The final week of the race began with an individual time trial on stage 17.
context_section_description: 7 September 2015 — Luarca to Ermita del Alba, Quirós, 185 km (115 mi)
  The sixteenth stage was the final stage of the second week of the race. It was the third of three consecutive summit finishes and included seven categorised climbs as the race entered the Cantabrian Mountains. The stage was a 185-kilometre (115 mi) route from Luarca to Quirós. The road climbed from the very start: the third-category Alto de Aristébano (14.6 kilometres (9.1 mi) at 3.4%) began at the end of the neutral zone. After the descent and some small uncategorised climbs came the second-category Alto de Piedratecha (10.6 kilometres (6.6 mi) at 4.8%), the summit of which came after 43 kilometres (27 mi). This was followed by a plateau and a long descent, then the third-category Alto de Cabruñana (4.8 kilometres (3.0 mi) at 6.7%). Around 25 kilometres (16 mi) of flat roads followed, before the second-category climb of the Alto del Tenebredo (3.7 kilometres (2.3 mi) at 8.9%). There was then a descent and around 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) of flat roads. At this point there were 43.5 kilometres (27.0 mi) remaining, which included almost no flat roads. First came the second-category climb of the Alto del Cordal (8.5 kilometres (5.3 mi) at 5.7%), then the first-category Alto de la Cobertoria (9.8 kilometres (6.1 mi) at 8.7%). These climbs often come before the famous climb of the Alto de l'Angliru, but the 2015 edition of the race introduced a new climb, the special-category Alto Ermita de Alba. This was a 6.8-kilometre (4.2 mi) climb at 11.1%, including sections at over 20%. The Alto Ermita de Alba was described by Javier Guillén, the race director, as "very tough".
  A ten-rider breakaway formed quickly at the beginning of the stage. The riders were Fränk Schleck (Trek Factory Racing), Rodolfo Torres (Colombia), Moreno Moser (Cannondale-Garmin), Cyril Lemoine (Cofidis), Larry Warbasse (IAM), George Bennett (LottoNL-Jumbo), Omar Fraile (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA), Carlos Verona (Etixx-Quick Step), Pierre Rolland (Europcar) and Tsgabu Grmay (Lampre-Merida). Fraile won each of the first five climbs of the day to extend his lead in the mountains classification. In the peloton, meanwhile, there was a dispute between Astana and Katusha – the teams of Aru and Rodríguez – over who would lead the chase. At one point the lead was over 20 minutes, but eventually Katusha took on the chase and began to bring the lead group back.
  The lead group broke up on the penultimate climb, the Alto de la Cobertoria, with Torres and Schleck going clear. They were still 10 minutes ahead of the peloton. The two riders came into the final climb together, with Fraile, Verona and Bennett chasing. Schleck attacked Torres several times on the slopes of the Ermita de Alba. Although Torres was able to follow these initial attacks, Schleck put in another, stronger attack with around 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) to the finish. Schleck rode away on the steepest portion of the climb to take the stage victory – his first victory in a Grand Tour since the 2009 Tour de France and his first ever stage victory in the Vuelta a España. Torres finished second, over a minute behind, with Moser another 38 seconds behind in third.
  In the main peloton, the main action came on the final three climbs. Tinkoff-Saxo rode hard on the first of these, the Alto del Cordal, before Astana did the same on the Alto de la Cobertoria. This reduced the peloton to a group of fifteen riders. Despite the attempts of the other teams, Dumoulin was able to follow the other riders. On the final climb, Paweł Poljański put in a strong effort on behalf of Majka, before Landa took over at the front of the group. Landa rode hard all the way up the climb; this caused Aru, his teammate, to struggle, as well as several of the other riders. Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) and Chaves were both dropped in the final 2 kilometres (1.2 mi). Dumoulin held on to the group until the final kilometre. At that moment, Rodríguez attacked and finished first among the general classification riders, nearly nine minutes behind Schleck. Aru chased hard, but finished 
caption: Fränk Schleck (Trek Factory Racing) won stage 16, his first Grand Tour victory in over six years (photographed at the 2015 Tour de Suisse).
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