Visma Lease a Bike riders react to extreme heat in shortened Vuelta a España stage

Britain’s Matthew Brennan expressed his disbelief at the extreme heat riders had to endure on Sunday during stage 15 of the Vuelta a España. His Visma Lease a Bike teammate Wout van Aert took a sprint win in Córdoba after the stage was shortened because of high temperatures.

“It’s 41 degrees average,” Brennan said. “When I was on the climb at the start it was 44, and at that point you start thinking: ‘What are we doing?’ A normal office person has to have the temperature set at 20 degrees or whatever, and I’m sure that the UCI [cycling’s governing body] office will have their 20 as well.”

The medium mountain stage from Palma del Rio to Córdoba was originally scheduled to cover 189.7km, but organisers removed 79.5km from the middle ⁠of the route on Saturday after activating the extreme weather ​protocol following ​several days of severe ​heat.

Brennan said: “It’s not great, but we do it, and that’s the show we put on. But it wouldn’t surprise me if there were a few bodies coming home tonight with heatstroke.”

Van Aert claimed his second victory ⁠in three stages after winning a five-rider sprint. The Belgian covered ⁠every attack from his four breakaway companions in the closing kilometres before producing a late ⁠surge just before the finish line to beat Alessandro ​Romele, of XDS Astana, ‌and Lidl-Trek’s Thibau ‌Nys.

“We tried to surprise the bunch by controlling the ‌whole day. We were still there with a few strong guys, and I knew people would not expect the attack. I smelled the moment on the intermediate sprint and with Matthew [Brennan] behind there was no ‌risk to try,” Van Aert said. “We always had a good option in the bunch. That’s ​how I like to race.”

The race leader Enric Mas and his main ​general classification rivals ‭finished together ​after Movistar ​controlled the chase behind the decisive breakaway and Mas will carry the red jersey into the second rest day on Monday.