Omega Pharma - Quick-Step Cycling Team riders Serge Pauwels and Pieter Serry were the top finishers of the 224.9km Stage 15 of La Vuelta a España on Sunday.
The two riders finished 56th and 57th in the high mountain stage. Alexandre Geniez (FDJ) won the stage solo out of an original breakaway. Michele Scarponi (Lampre-Merida) finished 2nd, and Nicolas Roche 3rd. The peloton was completely shattered, and many riders abandoned. OPQS abandons included Zdenek Stybar, Kristoff Vandewalle, and Tony Martin.
"The difficult stage of yesterday did some damage for the performances of today, for sure," Sport Director Rik Van Slycke said. "Stybar had a few problems probably because of the extreme weather conditions of yesterday. As for Kristof Vandewalle, he abandoned as a small consequence of a crash at La Vuelta a couple days ago. He had a little bit of pain on his left leg. So it was a precaution for his soreness, but also in function of Worlds that is fast approaching. Tony Martin also withdrew from the race today as he also paid a price for yesterday's hard stage. He did not want to take any risks of getting sick before his big objective of the Worlds ITT and TTT."
OPQS looks next to a 146.8km Stage 16 on Monday.