Matteo Trentin outsprinted Jose Joaquin Rojas to win stage 10 of the Vuelta as Chris Froome safely retained the race leader’s red jersey.
Trentin and Rojas burst clear as a 20-man breakaway group tackled the final climb of the 164.8km route between Caravaca Jubilar and Elpozo Alimentacion, holding onto their lead until the finish.
The Italian rider crested the summit of the Collado Bermejo in pole position before riding clear with Rojas on a succession of switchbacks before the finish.
“I was thinking of this stage for a while now and the plan was to get in the breakaway, knowing there was a solid chance it could stick”, said Trentin.
“I knew the last climb was a hard one, but I rode my own tempo and then, in the downhill, I just followed Rojas, aware he is a good descender and also that he knows the roads, being from Murcia. I am really happy with my second win here, our team is having a fantastic Vuelta a España and we hope to add other good results to our impressive tally in the next stages”, Matteo said at the finish, following Quick-Step Floors’ 14th Grand Tour victory of the year.
Froome held his general classification advantage of 36 seconds ahead of Esteban Chaves and BMC’s Nicolas Roche, the only mover in the top 10 after a late attack.
The descent conditions were tricky, with Cofidis rider Luis Angel Mate crashing, but Roche took advantage to skilfully move up the rankings, coming in 29 seconds ahead of the main field.
Vuelta a Espana 2017 – stage 10 results (Caravaca Jubilar – Elpozo Alimentacion):
| 1 | Matto Trentin (Quick-Step Floors) | 3:34:56 |
| 2 | Jose Joaquin Rojas (Movistar) | +01” |
| 3 | Jaime Roson (Caja Rural – Seguros RGA) | +19” |
| 4 | Jacques Janse van Rensburg (Dimension Data) | +21” |
| 5 | Alexandre Geniez (AG2R) | +56” |
| 6 | Marc Soler (Movistar) | +59” |
| 7 | Luis Leon Sanchez (Astana) | +02’22” |
| 8 | Alessandro De Marchi (BMC) | ,, |
| 9 | Arnaud Courteille (FDJ) | +02’40” |
| 10 | Rafael Reis (Caja Rural – Seguros RGA) | +03’05” |
| 11 | Bert-Jan Lindeman (LottoNl-Jumbo) | +03’59” |
| 12 | Nicolas Roche (BMC) | +04’03” |
| 13 | Jack Haig (Orica-Scott) | +04’32” |
| 14 | Julien Bernard (Trek-Segafredo) | ,, |
| 15 | Aldemar Reyes (Manzana Postobon) | ,, |
| 16 | Gianni Moscon (Team Sky) | ,, |
| 17 | Mikel Nieve (Team Sky) | ,, |
| 18 | Wout Poels (Team Sky) | ,, |
| 19 | Adam Yates (Orica-Scott) | ,, |
| 20 | Niki Terpstra (Quick-Step Floors) | ,, |
General classification after stage 10:
| 1 | Chris Froome (Team Sky) | 40:12:44 |
| 2 | Esteban Chaves (Orica-Scott) | +36” |
| 3 | Nicolas Roche (BMC) | ,, |
| 4 | Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain Merida) | +01’17” |
| 5 | Tejay Van Garderen (BMC) | +01’27” |
| 6 | David De La Cruz (Quick-Step Floors) | +01’30” |
| 7 | Fabio Aru (Astana) | +01’33” |
| 8 | Michael Woods (Cannondale-Drapac) | +01’52” |
| 9 | Adam Yates (Orica-Scott) | +01’55” |
| 10 | Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha-Alpecin) | +02’15” |
| 11 | Wilco Kelderman (Team Sunweb) | +02’31” |
| 12 | Sam Oomen (Team Sunweb) | +03’04” |
| 13 | Alberto Contador (Trek-Segafredo) | +03’32” |
| 14 | Wout Poels (Team Sky) | +03’45” |
| 15 | Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana) | +04’09” |
| 16 | Louis Meintjes (UAE Team Emirates) | +04’42” |
| 17 | Steven Kruijswijk (LottoNl-Jumbo) | +04’46” |
| 18 | Igor Anton (Dimension Data) | +05’54” |
| 19 | Mikel Nieve (Team Sky) | +07’24” |
| 20 | Jaime Roson (Caja Rural – Seguros RGA) | +08’08” |
