Mads Pedersen has already won his stage in La Vuelta 2025

Since the start of La Vuelta, he has been looking for victory without finding his point of speed and placement in the sprints. Omnipresent in breakaways to add as much as possible for the green jersey in a classification where he feels the breath of Jonas Vingegaard. Mads Pedersen finally obtained a prize for the exceptional Vuelta he is having with the victory in stage 15 of La Vuelta that ended in Monforte de Lemos.

The peloton advances the rest day and gives stage 15 of La Vuelta to a large breakaway

After the mountainous block of Asturias, the race enters another block of stages through Galician lands. Repeated terrain of medium mountain more typical of spring classics than a grand tour and that always tends to offer visually appealing stages.

This fifteenth stage of La Vuelta was like that during the first 30 kilometers with a tough start climb and attacks that followed en masse knowing that today the stage was going to be, almost certainly, for the breakaway.

RECOMENDADO

How to change the pedals of any bike in 5 steps

2025 XCO World Championships: favorites, schedules, and how to watch for free

How much prize money is awarded in the 2025 Vuelta a España?

2025 MTB Calendar: World Cup and World Championships XCO/XCC

Visible up to 900 meters during the day: that's how the new Trek lights are

Marc Soler gives UAE Team Emirates-XRG the seventh victory in La Vuelta 2025

Finally, a group of 45 units was consolidated with the Lidl-Trek team including no less than 5 units: Bernard, Ciccone, Ghebrezhabier, Verona and, of course, Pedersen. INEOS-Grenadiers also made a strong bet for the stage with Sheffield, Bernal, and Kwiatkowski, joined by other regulars in breakaways of this edition of La Vuelta such as Jay Vine, Carlos Canal, Javi Romo, Santiago Buitrago, or Louis Vervaeke.

The peloton, as we said, gave the stage to the escapees, with the gap increasing to more than 9 minutes. A breakaway in which, after cresting the second categorized climb of the day, Jay Vine accelerated to score the points and continue to consolidate the mountain jersey he wears. Louis Vervaeke accelerated with him and seeing the gap they opened, they decided to continue with the attempt despite there still being over 100 kilometers to the finish.

They gained about two and a half minutes over the rest of the breakaway, but they were not allowed to go much further, so their victory seemed complicated. After the bonus sprint in Sarria, where a new section of steep climbs awaited, attacks resumed in the group and a split formed with Egan Bernal and Santiago Buitrago, with Mads Pedersen joining them. They were joined by Magnus Sheffield, Orluis Aular, Eddie Dunbar, and Marco Frigo.

7 units that, with the momentum to open a gap, gradually reduced the lead of Vine and Vervaeke until they were caught just 7 km from the finish. From there to the finish line, there were the typical attempts to surprise, but an imperial Mads Pedersen closed every gap until he positioned himself less than 400 m from the finish line where he launched the sprint effortlessly to achieve that victory that had eluded him without any opposition.

Stage 15 Classification

1. Mad Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) 4h02'13''
2. Orluis Aular (Movistar) +00''
3. Marco Frigo (Israel-PremierTech) +00''
4. Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain-Victorious) +00''
5. Eddie Dunbar (Jayco-AlUla) +00''
6. Egan Bernal (INEOS Grenadiers) +00''
7. Louis Vervaeke (Soudal-QuickStep)+00''
8. Jay Vine (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) +08''
9. Magnus Sheffield (INEOS Grenadiers) +08''
10. Alec Segaert (Lotto) +23''

General Classification

1. Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) 57h35'33''
2. Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) +48''
3. Thomas Pidcock (Q36.5) +2'38''
4. Jai Hindley (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) +3'10''
5. Felix Gall (Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale) +3'30''
6. Giulio Pellizzari (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) +4'21''
7. Matthew Riccitello (Israel-PremierTech) +4'53''
8. Sepp Kuss (Visma-Lease a Bike) +5'46''
9. Junior Lecerf (Soudal-QuickStep) +5'49''
10. Torstein Træen (Bahrain-Victorious) +6'33''