Elia Viviani won his second Vuelta stage on Tuesday, while Simon Yates retained the leader’s red jersey despite a late puncture.
Viviani, who also won the third stage, outsprinted Peter Sagan in the final meters to comfortably win the 177-kilometer flat 10th stage from Salamanca to Bermillo de Sayago.
”Everything went perfect,” Viviani said. ”I always dreamt of winning as many Grand Tour stages as possible. Now I have five at the Giro and two at La Vuelta and I want to enjoy my perfect train to win more until the end of La Vuelta.”
Yates had a puncture with about 15 kilometers to go but was able to rejoin the pack and maintain his one-second lead over Alejandro Valverde. Adam Yates, Simon’s twin, was among the riders who stayed behind to lead him back to the peloton.
”Things went relatively straightforward until the end, then I must have hit something on the side of the road, I punctured twice so it made things a bit nervous but we managed to control,” Yates said. ”I’m improving every year to try and win the general classification and now we’ll see how far I can go with this red jersey.”
Nairo Quintana, third overall, also had a puncture late in the stage, but recovered to remain 14 seconds behind Yates.
Diego Rubio broke away with about 20 kilometers to go, moving 20 seconds in front of the pack, but he was caught less than 10 kilometers from the finish.
On Wednesday, riders will face a 208-kilometer hilly route from Mombuey to Ribeira Sacra.
Vuelta a Espana 2018 – stage 10 results (Salamanca – Bermillo de Sayago):
| 1 | Elia Viviani (Quick-Step Floors) | 4:08:08 |
| 2 | Peter Sagan (Bora-hansgrohe) | ,, |
| 3 | Giacomo Nizzolo (Trek-Segafredo) | ,, |
| 4 | Nelson Andres Soto (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) | ,, |
| 5 | Marc Sarreau (Groupama-FDJ) | ,, |
| 6 | Danny van Poppel (LottoNL-Jumbo) | ,, |
| 7 | Ivan Garcia (Bahrain-Merida) | ,, |
| 8 | Jon Aberasturi (Euskadi-Murias) | ,, |
| 9 | Simone Consonni (UAE Team Emirates) | ,, |
| 10 | Matteo Trentin (Mitchelton-Scott) | ,, |
| 11 | Tom Van Asbroeck (EF Education First-Drapac) | ,, |
| 12 | Tosh Van Der Sande (Lotto Soudal) | ,, |
| 13 | Nacer Bouhanni (Cofidis) | ,, |
| 14 | Luis Guillermo Mas (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) | ,, |
| 15 | Ryan Gibbons (Dimension Data) | ,, |
| 16 | Max Walscheid (Team Sunweb) | ,, |
| 17 | Fabio Sabatini (Quick-Step Floors) | ,, |
| 18 | Michael Schwarzmann (Bora-hansgrohe) | ,, |
| 19 | Eduard Prades (Euskadi-Murias) | ,, |
| 20 | Jordi Simon (Burgos BH) | ,, |
General classification after stage 10:
| 1 | Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) | 41:03:00 |
| 2 | Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) | +01” |
| 3 | Nairo Quintana (Movistar) | +14” |
| 4 | Emanuel Buchmann (Bora-hansgrohe) | +16” |
| 5 | Ion Izagirre (Bahrain-Merida) | +17” |
| 6 | Tony Gallopin (AG2R La Mondiale) | +24” |
| 7 | Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana) | +27” |
| 8 | Rigoberto Uran (EF Education First-Drapac) | +32” |
| 9 | Steven Kruijswijk (LottoNL-Jumbo) | +43” |
| 10 | George Bennett (LottoNL-Jumbo) | +48” |
| 11 | Fabio Aru (UAE Team Emirates) | +01’08” |
| 12 | Enric Mas (Quick-Step Floors) | +01’15” |
| 13 | David De La Cruz (Team Sky) | +01’26” |
| 14 | Wilco Kelderman (Team Sunweb) | +01’50” |
| 15 | Michal Kwiatkowski (Team Sky) | +02’10” |
| 16 | Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) | +02’33” |
| 17 | Rudy Molard (Groupama-FDJ) | +02’43” |
| 18 | Benjamin King (Dimension Data) | +03’01” |
| 19 | Laurens De Plus (Quick-Step Floors) | +03’17” |
| 20 | Jack Haig (Mitchelton-Scott) | +04’29” |
