Elia Viviani wins his second stage as Simon Yates retains lead
Italian ace sprinter wins another flat out finale ahead of Sagan and Nizzolo. Simon Yates keeps the leaders Red jersey for another day
A flat day awaited to gently ease riders back into the race after the first rest day. The 177km parcours was level for almost the entire route, apart from a slight descent ahead of the day’s only climb – the third category Alto de Fermoselle. This 4.9km climb, with an average gradient of 5.3%, wouldn’t be long enough or steep enough to cause any problems for the refreshed legs of the peloton, but it’s proximity to the finish – 30km from the finale – meant there was a chance for some late attacks. The peloton would be aiming to keep control to the end – the flat finale suiting the sprinters – meaning that while much of the day would be straightforward, the finish would more than make up for this, with high speeds and excitement to close off the stage.
With fresh legs, there was a lot of scrambling to make it into the break from the start of today’s stage, with several attempts to esacape shut down by the peloton. One rider managed to escape, followed by an attack that included Michael Schwarzmann, but this one was quickly brought back in, before another solo rider joined the existing escapee to make two. This was the day’s break, but in spite of being allowed to extend their lead to four minutes, was never allowed any further than this, spending much of the day with just two minutes separating them from the front, with the peloton looking confident that they could pull them back in any time they wanted.
The whole peloton pushed the pace hard on the day’s third category climb, working on the front to try and drop the sprinters – or at least to tire them out for the finale. This helped to bring the break in ahead of the finale. This extra effort saw one of the break cracking and dropping back to the peloton before the one remaining rider was caught a few kilometres later.
From the flamme rouge, the already ragged and tired peloton forced the sprinters into action early, Peter Sagan, in spite of fighting hard for space, was boxed in and unable to make his way around the eventual winner, Elia Viviani, and took second on the line, however the UCI World Champion claimed the race’s green jersey of points leader.
Simon Yates finished in the bunch and retained the Red leaders jersey for another dya, just 1 seconds ahead Valvered and 14s ahead of Quintana.
Tomorrow's 11th stage is the longest in this edition of La Vuelta. It features a winding terrain that will be favourable for escapes to take place, as well as three 3rd category climbs and one 2nd category climb. It is likely that a small group of favourites will finish first.
VIDEO: 2018 Le Vuelta Stage 10 Highlights
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2018 La Vuelta Stage 10 Top 10
1 Elia Viviani (Ita) Quick-Step Floors 4:08:08
2 Peter Sagan (Svk) Bora-Hansgrohe
3 Giacomo Nizzolo (Ita) Trek-Segafredo
4 Nelson Andres Soto Martinez (Col) Caja Rural-Seguros RGA
5 Marc Sarreau (Fra) Groupama-FDJ
6 Danny van Poppel (Ned) LottoNL-Jumbo
7 Ivan Garcia (Spa) Bahrain-Merida
8 Jon Aberasturi Izaga (Spa) Euskadi Basque Country-Murias
9 Simone Consonni (Ita) UAE Team Emirates
10 Matteo Trentin (Ita) Mitchelton-Scott
2018 La Vuelta GC after Stage 10 Top 10
1 Simon Yates (GBr) Mitchelton-Scott 41:03:00
2 Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar Team 0:00:01
3 Nairo Quintana (Col) Movistar Team 0:00:14
4 Emanuel Buchmann (Ger) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:00:16
5 Ion Izagirre (Spa) Bahrain-Merida 0:00:17
6 Tony Gallopin (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 0:00:24
7 Miguel Angel Lopez (Col) Astana Pro Team 0:00:27
8 Rigoberto Uran (Col) EF Education First-Drapac p/b Cannondale 0:00:32
9 Steven Kruijswijk (Ned) LottoNL-Jumbo 0:00:43
10 George Bennett (NZl) LottoNL-Jumbo 0:00:47