Behind Vingegaard and Almeida, the Vuelta battle for third place heats up: "We know we have to outsmart him"

On La Farrapona, Hindley gained ten seconds on Pidcock and five on Gall, meaning the three are now within 52 seconds of each other. Pidcock is currently in bronze position, but Hindley (32 seconds) and Gall (52 seconds) are breathing down the neck of the Brit from Q36.5.

“It was a pretty tough climb. UAE Emirates-XRG and Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe made it a difficult ride and a long effort, but luckily it went up and down a bit,” said Pidcock. It wasn't too bad. The wind made it tough, but in the end, the final kilometer decided it."

“I lost some time, but I think I'm getting better and better at those long efforts. I used to struggle with that in the past, or rather, that's where I can improve the most. That's already worked out well this year,” said the Brit, who hopes not to have to push too hard on Sunday. ‘Hopefully it will be a quiet day, but we'll see.’

On behalf of Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe, white jersey Giulio Pellizzari - himself sixth, just over two minutes behind Pidcock - told his story. “Today we tried to do our best with Jai [Hindley]. We felt really good. We know that to get on the podium, we need to flick [Tom] Pidcock. So we tried and Jai gained 10 seconds, so we keep fighting.”

"There’s just another day before the rest day, and then we see in the third week what we can do. For me and for the team, the white jersey is a goal, but first we want the podium with Jai and we know that we can do it. So first, we focus on the podium, and then we’ll see about me," said Pellizzari, who himself has only a half-minute lead over closest white jersey challenger Matthew Riccitello of Israel-Premier Tech.

“Today, everybody was a bit full gas, but in the end there were people who were even more on the limit. Tomorrow, the start is hard. I hope the breakaway can make and can ride ‘easy’ in the bunch,” he concluded about stage 15.

These days have also gone well for Gall. “It was a double test, with the Angliru on Friday and now this stage. The final was very tough. UAE Emirates-XRG and Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe rode very hard in the valley, but on the final climb, the headwind made it easier. Otherwise, the gaps would have been bigger.”

The Austrian from Decathlon AG2R seems to be on course for a good final ranking in this Vuelta. “I'm pleased. I did my best and finished well. We couldn't really force anything on the final climb, but the guys did very well from the breakaway. It's nice always to have someone with me.”