Vuelta a Espana Final Results

Fabio Aru Wins His First Grand Tour

John Degenkolb of Team Giant-Alpecin won the final stage of the Vuelta a Espana on Sunday. Fabio Aru (Astana Pro Team) won the overall General Classification victory by finishing the final stage without any trouble in the last Grand Tour of the 2015 season. Unfortunately Joaquim Rodriguez (Team Katusha) suffered a puncture on the lead up to the second intermediate sprint. Rodriguez was the Point Competition leader at that point, but Alejandro Valverde (Team Movistar) pulled ahead to win the sprint and gain the bonus four seconds to take the Vuelta Green Jersey. Omar Fraile (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) claimed the King of the Mountains jersey in Stage 3 and kept it throughout the Vuelta.
The Vuelta Red Jersey is the first Grand Tour victory for Aru out of five Grand Tour starts in his career.This success helps Astana overcome the disappointment of the ejection of teammate Vincenzo Nibali, one of the GC favorites at the beginning of the Vuelta. Although Tom Dumoulin lost the Red Jersey on the last competitive stage of the Vuelta, many people are pointing to next year’s Tour de France as a race that Dumoulin may do well in.
The largely ceremonial stage covered 93.7 km (58.2 miles) from Alcala de Henares, just outside of Madrid to Madrid itself. The route includes 12 circuits in the center of the capital and is run in the early evening, much like the final stage of the Tour in Paris. A group of six riders formed a breakaway on the second circuit, soon after the sprint win by Valverde. The breakaway could not develop a large gap between the group and the peloton. The peloton swept up the breakaway on the next to the last lap.
BMC Racing Team, Trek Factory Racing, Lampre-Merida,  and Orica GreenEdge led the peloton initially toward the finish. However, Team Giant-Alpecin moved to the front with a solid lead out train for Degenkolb in the last 1.5 km (.93 mile) of the stage. Degenkolb emerged from the lead out and appeared to lead and then fade and then lead at the finish. Degenkolb barely held off a charging Danny van Poppel (Trek Factory Racing) and Jean-Pierre Drucker (BMC Racing Team).
The climbing strength of the Astana Pro Team relative to Team Giant-Alpecin is shown in the Team Standings shown below. Astana finished fourth while Giant finished sixteenth in the standings. This strength was an excellent support system for Aru.

Stage 21 Results

1
John Degenkolb
Ger
Team Giant-Alpecin
2:34:13
2
Danny Van Poppel
Ned
Trek Factory Racing
0:00
3
Jean-Pierre Drucker
Lux
BMC Racing Team
0:00
4
Daryl Impey
RSA
Orica GreenEdge
0:00
5
Tosh Van Der Sande
Bel
Lotto Soudal
0:00
6
Maximiliano Ariel Richeze
Arg
Lampre-Merida
0:00
7
Nikolas Maes
Bel
Etixx - Quick-Step
0:00
8
Kristian Sbaragli
Ita
MTN - Qhubeka
0:00
9
Kévin Reza
Fra
FDJ
0:00
10
Tom Van Asbroeck
Bel
Team LottoNL-Jumbo
0:00

Final General Classification Standings

1
Fabio Aru
Ita
Astana Pro Team
8:36:13
2
Joaquim Rodriguez
Spa
Team Katusha
0:00:57
3
Rafal Majka
Pol
Tinkoff-Saxo
0:01:09
4
Nairo Quintana
Col
Movistar Team
0:01:42
5
Esteban Chaves
Col
Orica GreenEdge
0:03:10
6
Tom Dumoulin
Ned
Team Giant-Alpecin
0:03:46
7
Alejandro Valverde
Spa
Movistar Team
0:06:47
8
Mikel Nieve
Spa
Team Sky
0:07:06
9
Daniel Moreno Fernandez
Spa
Team Katusha
0:07:12
10
Songezo Jim
RSA
MTN - Qhubeka
0:10:26

Team Standings

1
Movistar Team
256:44:38
2
Team Sky
0:29:47
3
Team Katusha
0:35:44
4
Astana Pro Team
0:48:24
5
Team Europcar
1:11:00
6
Caja Rural-Seguros Rga
1:20:44
7
Tinkoff - Saxo
1:40:58
8
Etixx - Quick Step
1:43:44
9
Lotto Soudal
1:55:17
10
Cofidis, Solutions Credits
2:36:11
11
Team Cannondale - Garmin
2:51:12
12
Colombia
2:56:21
13
Ag2R La Mondiale
3:07:42
14
Trek Factory Racing
3:13:22
15
Lampre - Merida
3:36:14
16
Team Giant - Alpecin
4:00:15
17
Bmc Racing Team
4:20:42
18
Iam Cycling
4:30:43
19
Mtn - Qhubeka
4:36:14
20
Orica Greenedge
5:15:38
21
FDJ
5:21:51
22
Team Lotto Nl - Jumbo
6:24:41

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