Guillaume Martin (Cofidis) was in the main breakaway group on Thursday's 15th stage of the Vuelta a España, scoring enough points to secure the overall mountain classification with three days to go until the finish in Madrid on Sunday.

Martin took the lead in four of the five third-class mountains that were rained and winded during the 230.8km run from Moss to Puebla de Sanabria, but was eventually caught by the pack, with UAE Team Emirates' Jasper Philipsen taking the day's win.

Only a total of 53 points are available for the remaining climbs in this year's Vuelta. That means that Martin, who is 55 points ahead of second-place finisher Tim Wellens (Lotto-Soudal), is good enough for the 27-year-old Frenchman to take the blue and white polka-dot jersey to the finish.

"It was a long and tiring stage," Martin said on the team website. It took about 60 kilometers for a breakaway group to form."

"After the first climb, it was difficult to find space to attack. But I felt good and that helped me to get the polka-dot jersey.

On stage 13 of this year's Tour de France to Le Puy, where he was third overall, Martin was a bit disappointed that he could not fight with the main GC riders, but he still finished 11th overall in Paris, surpassing his previous best Tour finish of 12th in 2019.

Julienne.

He helped Julien Alaphilippe win the rainbow jersey and finished 13th in the World Championships road race in Imola and 14th in Liège-Bastogne-Liège. At Sunday's Vuelta, he will be aiming for at least a top-20 overall finish.

Despite winning the mountains prize in the Spanish Grand Tour, Martín wished he had the option to fight for a stage win on Thursday.

"I was frustrated that the breakaway group got caught," Martin said.

"If we had been able to work together a little bit better, we could have opened up a gap on the peloton. But it was really difficult with the headwind."

"Then I didn't have time to get back [to the team car] to put on my K-way [rain jacket], and the wind and rain made it difficult to finish the stage. Now that I have the jersey secured, I want to recover well to see what I can do next."