It was rated as a 2.1 event on the 2015 UCI Europe Tour and was held from 18 to 22 February 2015, in the Andalusia region of southern Spain.

[1] The previous three editions of the Vuelta a Andalucía had been won by Alejandro Valverde (Movistar Team), but he chose to begin his season at the 2015 Tour of Oman instead.

Nairo Quintana (Movistar Team) also intended to start his season at this race, but he pulled out following a crash.

Froome, however, won the second summit finish on stage 4 to take the lead of the race by a two-second margin.

Many riders in the modern peloton, however, chose to start their seasons in the Middle East rather than in Europe (the 2015 Tour of Oman ran at the same time).

In 2015, these included Alejandro Valverde (Movistar Team), who had won the Vuelta a Andalucía in 2012, 2013 and 2014, so he was not present to defend his title.

In particular, it was considered to be a renewing of the rivalry between Chris Froome (Team Sky) and Alberto Contador (Tinkoff–Saxo), both of whom were starting their seasons in Andalusia.

[3][4][5] Initially, Nairo Quintana (Movistar Team) had also intended to start the race at the beginning of his European season, in preparation for the Tour de France.

[6] However, following his participation in the Tour de San Luis, Quintana was involved in a crash at the Colombian National Road Race Championships and pulled out of the Vuelta a Andalucía in order to recuperate.

[9] The early break was formed by Reinier Honig (Team Roompot), Christopher Jones (UnitedHealthcare), Ibai Salas (Burgos BH) and Aleksandr Komin (RusVelo).

[10] Their lead never exceeded four minutes, thanks to chasing efforts by the Movistar Team, and they were caught with approximately 40 km (25 mi) remaining.

[19] Chris Froome (Team Sky) finished eight seconds behind Contador in what was the first significant meeting of the two favourites for the 2015 Tour de France.

The one classified climb of the day came within the final 10 kilometres (6 miles), before the riders tackled an uphill section approaching the finish.

[21] There was a five-man breakaway early in the stage, formed of Nicolas Dougall (MTN–Qhubeka), Adrian Honkisz (CCC–Sprandi–Polkowice), Aleksandr Komin (RusVelo), Pirmin Lang (IAM Cycling) and Sjoerd van Ginneken (Team Roompot).

[22] There were further attacks on the climb, principally from Nicolas Edet (Cofidis), who won the mountains classification points at the summit.

Carlos Quintero (Colombia), Mirko Selvaggi (Wanty–Groupe Gobert) and Peter Kennaugh (Team Sky) all attacked on the descent, but were controlled by the peloton.

[22][23] John Degenkolb was the favourite to win from the remaining group, but he was surprised by a sprint from 300 metres (980 feet) out by Juan José Lobato (Movistar Team).

[22] Bob Jungels (Trek Factory Racing) was in second place before the stage, but could not follow the pace on the final climb and so dropped out of the top 10.

[26][27] Tinkoff–Saxo controlled the peloton through most of the day and onto the early slopes of the final climb, reducing the group to 40 riders as they approached the most difficult part.

After Contador had left Basso behind, he built a lead of 30 to 40 seconds over the group behind, riding without a power meter because of interference from the television motorcycles.

[28] Contador won the stage ahead of Froome, who had partially closed the gap, and was now just 19 seconds behind; Bardet was over a minute further back in third place.

[29][30] Stage 4 was another summit finish, with the climb of Alto de Allanadas coming after 202.4 kilometres (126 miles) of racing.

Nicolas Roche Team Sky did a long spell riding on the front of the lead group on behalf of Froome; after this, their teammate Peter Kennaugh made a solo attack that brought Selvaggi back.

[33][36] Froome then rode solo to the end of the stage, using his power meter to judge his effort, and was able to ride away from Contador.

[39][40] The day's breakaway was formed by Johnny Hoogerland (Team Roompot), Pello Bilbao (Caja Rural–Seguros RGA), Songezo Jim, Merhawi Kudus (both MTN–Qhubeka), Rodolfo Torres (Colombia), Maciej Paterski (CCC–Sprandi–Polkowice) and Víctor Martín (Burgos BH).

With 1.2 kilometres (0.7 miles) remaining, Edward Theuns (Topsport Vlaanderen–Baloise) attacked and was able to form a gap back to the peloton, but he was unable to hold on to win the stage.