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Dutchman Lars Boom of Rabobank won the 15th stage of the Vuelta a Espana from Jaen to Cordoba.

The 23-year-old left 12 fellow escapees on the second climb of the Alto de San Jeronimo inside the final 25km of the 171km stage and powered home one minute and 36 seconds ahead of David Herrero (Xacobeo).

With none of the escape group within 57 minutes of overall leader Alejandro Valverde, the peloton coasted through the second half of the stage and eventually finished 25 minutes behind Boom.

A series of attacks were foiled in a rapid opening to the stage before Alexander Efimkin (AG2R), Maxim Iglinsky (Astana), Leonardo Duque (Cofidis), Matthieu Ladagnous (FDJeux), Christian Meier (Garmin), Olivier Kaisen (Silence-Lotto), Vicente Reynes (Columbia), Martin Velits and Dominik Roels (Milram), Alexandr Kolobnev (Saxo-Bank), Serafin Martinez and Herrero (Xacobeo) plus Boom formed a group around the halfway mark.

They soon built up a substantial lead and their advantage blew out to over 13 minutes as they entered Cordoba for the first lap of the long finishing circuit.

The group worked together on the first ascent of the 14km category two San Jeronimo climb but Roels, Reynes, Martinez and Boom went clear second time around.

Boom was involved in breakaways in stages three and four but was foiled in his victory attempts but was not to be denied on this occasion as he reached the summit, with 11km remaining, with a one minute lead on Herrero.

He extended his advantage on the descent to add to a palmares that already includes the 2008 world cyclo-cross title, the 2007 under-23 world time trial crown and the 2008 Dutch national championship double.

Roels was eight seconds behind Herrero in third and Duque won the six-man sprint for fourth, 2:04 back on the stage winner.

Andre Greipel led the peloton over in 14th position with no changes on general classification as Valverde leads Dutchman Robert Gesink by 31 seconds with Samuel Sanchez third.

Stage 16 of the Vuelta LIVE on Tuesday at 3pm on British Eurosport (Sky 410 / Virgin Media 521); Also available on your PC via the Eurosport Player - click on the link under the picture to subscribe

Lee Walker / Eurosport