Mikel Landa (Astana) has won Stage 15 of the Giro d’Italia. The Spaniard surged past Yury Trofimov (Katusha) in the last 500 meters to win the mountainous, 165-km ride from Marostica to Madonna di Campiglio in 4:22:35. Trofimov settled for second at 0:02, and Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo Bank) finished third at 0:05. Contador has extended his overall lead in the Giro.

For the first time in several days, sunshine greeted the riders. The early pace was fast, and 10 riders went off of the front. Eventually, Giovanni Visconti (Movistar) jumped away, and Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha) joined him. Visconti’s teammate Benat Intxausti bridged up to the move, and the trio led the field by 0:46 at the summit of the Category 2 La Fricca.

On the descent, Sergio Paulinho (Tinkoff-Saxo Bank) joined the break, and eventually Kanstantsin Siutsiu (Sky), Herbert Dupont and Matteo Montaguti (both from Ag2r-La Mondiale), Diego Rosa (Astana), and Brent Bookwalter (BMC) bridged up to it.

Siutsou and Visconti attacked their companions, and Bookwalter and Dupont joined them. With 54 kilometers to go, the foursome led the maglia rosa group by 2:15. The peloton absorbed the remnants of the original break.

The break dropped Bookwalter on the Ponte Arche, which was uncategorized. When the peloton reached the ascent, Richie Porte (Sky) and Rigoberto Uran (Etixx-Quick Step) were dropped, and the former would lose 27 minutes by the end of the stage.

Astana paced the peloton. As the pursuit approached the break, Siutsou and Visconti dropped back to support team captains Leopold Konig and Andrey Amador, respectively. Dupont would go it alone.

At the day’s final intermediate sprint, Contador attacked and took two bonus seconds. Astana led the field onto the Category 1 ascent to the finish, with Contador tucking himself into the middle of the Kazakh team’s paceline. Astana’s pacemaking reduced the maglia rosa to eight riders with five kilometers to go.

Landa accelerated and split the maglia rosa group. Aru was momentarily dropped, but he and Trofimov rejoined the maglia rosa group, which was down to Aru, Contador, Landa, and Trofimov.

The leaders exchanged surges until Trofimov attacked with one kilometer remaining. For a time, the Russian looked like a winner, but Landa attacked with 450 meters left to take the stage. Contador outsprinted Aru to the finish to take another second out of him.

Despite the day’s success, Landa feels that overtaking Contador is an uncertain proposition. “I feel very good,” Landa said, “but to gain five minutes on Alberto Contador, you'd have to be a campionissimo. I don't want to say that it's impossible, but it's almost impossible. It will be easier to defend Aru's position, and try to beat Contador with Aru, if he has the strength, because he's only two and a half minutes back. If Aru has a crisis, then I'll be ready to assume that responsibility, but I think he's good to defend it. He is young but strong, he rarely has a bad day, as we saw last year. There are still three or four uphill stages here, and if our legs are good, we'll have a go. Any day will do.”

Contador has a big lead going into the race’s final week, but he takes nothing for granted. “There is still a long way to go, and everyone has good days and less good days,” the Tinkoff-Saxo Bank man said. “As for being worried, I have a lot of respect for them but I'm happy with the good sensations I have. It is true that Astana have two in-form riders. Today, Landa was stronger than Aru. That much was clear. But, as I said yesterday, I have to look carefully at each stage and, perhaps, instead of defending, attack, if my legs allow it.” 

In the overall, Contador leads Aru by 2:35 and Amador by 4:19. Tomorrow will be the Giro’s second rest day. Riders and teams will lick their wounds, rest, and formulate strategy for the race’s final week. On Tuesday, Stage 16 will take the riders from Pinzolo to Aprica. The 177-kilometer ride will take the field over two Category 2 climbs and a Category 3 ascent before the field reaches the Category 1 Passo del Mortirolo. After the descent, the field will tackle the Category 4 climb to the finish. Who will win? Contador? Aru? Landa? Check in at www.roadcycling.com and find out!