Roche remains in sixth place in Vuelta

France’s Alexandre Geniez took a solo victory in the mountainous Stage 15 of the Tour of Spain on Sunday as Vincenzo Nibali of Italy retained the overall lead.

Italian Michele Scarponi was second in the stage from Andorra to the summit finish in Peyragudes, France with Ireland’s Nicolas Roche third. Part of a leading breakaway of 28 riders, Geniez took off alone 20 kilometres from the finish and surged away to seal victory.

Following the second of three Pyrenean stages, Nibali remained the race leader with American Chris Horner second, Spain’s Alejandro Valverde third, while Roche remains in sixth place overall with a week of the Tour of Spain still to go.

Leading positions after Stage 15 (Andorra — Peyragudes, 224.9km): 1 Alexandre Geniez (Fra) FDJ.fr 6hrs 20mins 12secs, 2 Michele Scarponi (Ita) Lampre-Merida at 3mins 03secs, 3 Nicolas Roche (Irl) Team Saxo-Tinkoff at 3.07, 4 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Astana Pro Team at 3.20, 5 Alejandro Valverde Belmonte (Spa) Movistar Team at same time, 6 Christopher Horner (USA) RadioShack Leopard at same time, 7 Joaquim Rodriguez Oliver (Spa) Katusha at same time, 8 Domenico Pozzovivo (Ita) AG2R La Mondiale at same time, 9 José Herrada Lopez (Spa) Movistar Team at 3.23, 10 David Arroyo Duran (Spa) Caja Rural-Seguros RGA at same time.

Classification from Vuelta a Espana after Stage 15: 1. Vincenzo Nibali (Italy / Astana) 60:20:21” 2. Chris Horner (U.S. / RadioShack) +50” 3. Alejandro Valverde (Spain / Movistar) +1:42” 4. Joaquim Rodriguez (Spain / Katusha) +2:57” 5. Domenico Pozzovivo (Italy / AG2R) +3:43” 6. Nicolas Roche (Ireland / Saxo - Tinkoff) +3:49” 7. Thibaut Pinot (France / FDJ.fr) +4:59” 8. Leopold Koenig (Czech Republic / NetApp) +6:18” 9. Samuel Sanchez (Spain / Euskaltel) +7:46” 10. Tanel Kangert (Estonia / Astana) +9:11”.