Britain’s Matthew Brennan voiced his frustration over the extreme heat faced by riders during stage 15 of the Vuelta a España. Competing in Córdoba, his Visma Lease a Bike teammate Wout van Aert clinched a sprint victory after the stage was shortened due to soaring temperatures.

Brennan remarked, “It’s 41 degrees average. 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.”

Originally planned to cover 189.7km, the medium mountain stage was reduced by 79.5km after race organizers activated the extreme weather protocol following several days of severe heat.

He added, “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.”

In the race, Van Aert secured his second win in three stages, dominating a five-rider sprint. He effectively countered every attack from his breakaway companions before executing a late surge to outpace Alessandro Romele from XDS Astana and Thibau Nys of Lidl-Trek.

“We tried to surprise the bunch by controlling the whole day. I knew people would not expect the attack,” said Van Aert. “That’s how I like to race.”

Enric Mas, the race leader, and his main general classification rivals finished together, thanks to Movistar controlling the chase behind the decisive breakaway. Mas will wear the red jersey into the second rest day on Monday.