If there is one thing that all the interviews after stage 15 of the Vuelta a España have in common, it is that after 6.5 hours of grueling racing in cold, wet conditions and with a strong headwind towards the end, the riders were rubbing their hands together furiously to keep warm! The last one was that after six and a half hours of grueling racing in a strong headwind, the athletes were rubbing their hands vigorously together to keep warm.

On a day like this, any gesture that mitigates the harshness and potential risk of running 230 km of 4,000-meter climbs is appreciated.

Race leader Primoš Roglic (Jumbo Visma) praised the organizers' decision to stop the GC clock with 3km to go due to an oil patch in the fast, technical finale.

Former Vuelta champion Alberto Contador would also agree with the early GC timekeeping; the same finish was used in the 2016 Vuelta, where Contador was in a good position but crashed heavily on the left curve before the final small climb, injuring Contador was in a good position when he crashed hard on the left turn before the small final climb, injuring himself and nearly abandoning the race.

Exhausted and freezing, the riders were not always able to make the best decisions to spot danger in the final stages, and Roglic claimed that he thought the organizers "definitely" made the best decisions in Puebla de Sanabria.

"There was oil or something, and you shouldn't risk more than you have to.

"It was a very tough day, the longest stage of the race, fast, and in bad weather with cold and rain at the end. I'm really happy the race is over. In fact, stage 15 was the longest stage of the 2020 WorldTour and 2.HC event.

Stages 14 and 15 are both over 200km long, with a large amount of unclassified "invisible" climbs, and are arguably the event that a successful GC contender would most fear in the third week.

Before the stage, George Bennett of Jumbo-Visma said that behind the scenes, things were never simple, although the race appeared to be tough but simple.

"Yesterday [stage 14] we almost made a mistake, a group of 26 riders got separated early on and the sixth and seventh riders got all the action before the TV cameras came in.

"With a big headwind, you can have an uneventful day. But we were all up early and there was a big move" - two hours south to Salamanca - "and then we were struggling to survive."

In addition, Bennett said Wednesday's 200 km south of Galicia was one of the hardest of the race.

"Stage 14 was super tough, we were gassed all day, but it looks like nothing happened in the profiles, results, and on TV. It's 30km longer today and there's 1000m of climbing.

"It's the last couple of days when you have big explosions in the mountain stages, so you have to get through it well," he said. Commenting on Thursday's stage, Bennett said, "The added wind, rain, and cold made it even tougher."

The Vuelta a España now enters two mountain stages that Bennett describes. A brief plunge into the little-known Sierra de Francia in Spain's rugged west end on Friday, followed by a more set-piece summit finish stage on Saturday. Both stages are followed by a series of 200 km stages across the Galicia region.