Primoz Roglic earned a dominant victory in the individual time trial Tuesday to take the overall lead of the Vuelta a Espana.
The Jumbo-Visma rider won the 36-kilometer 10th stage in the French city Pau with a time that was 25 seconds faster than second-place Patrick Bevin (CCC). Frenchman Remi Cavagna of team Deceuninck-Quick-Step was third, 27 seconds off the lead.
”I’m happy with the performance, for sure,” said Roglic. ”The goal was to try to go as fast as possible all the time and, yeah, it was enough in the end.”
Roglic, only the second Slovenian to take the Vuelta lead, opened a gap of nearly two minutes over second-place Alejandro Valverde.
”It was everything as expected,” Valverde said. ”Roglic was the favorite for this time trial and he showed why. I had a decent time trial. There is a long way to go and we are still in it.”
Third-place Miguel Angel Lopez fell more than 2 minutes behind Roglic.
”We will have a lot of opportunities,” the Colombian rider said. ”Hopefully we will still be in the fight in the end.”
Valverde’s teammate Nairo Quintana, who was wearing the leader’s red jersey entering Tuesday’s stage, dropped to fourth place, three minutes off the lead.
”Three minutes is a lot,” the Colombian said. ”In this situation we have lost races and we have won races. We have nothing to lose. We are at least going to try.”
On Wednesday, riders return to Spain in a mid-mountain 11th stage of 180 kilometers from Saint-Palais to Urdax.
Vuelta a Espana 2019 – stage 10 results (Jurançon – Pau ITT):
| 1 | Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) | 47:05 |
| 2 | Patrick Bevin (CCC) | +25” |
| 3 | Rémi Cavagna (Deceuninck-Quick-Step) | +27” |
| 4 | Lawson Craddock (EF Education First) | +48” |
| 5 | Nelson Oliveira (Movistar) | +01’02” |
| 6 | Pierre Latour (AG2R La Mondiale) | +01’14” |
| 7 | Thomas De Gendt (Lotto Soudal) | +01’21” |
| 8 | Marc Soler (Movistar) | +01’22” |
| 9 | Dylan Teuns (Bahrain-Merida) | +01’27” |
| 10 | Daniel Martinez (EF Education First) | +01’28” |
| 11 | Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) | +01’29” |
| 12 | Bruno Armirail (Groupama-FDJ) | +01’36” |
| 13 | Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) | +01’38” |
| 14 | Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana) | +02’00” |
| 15 | James Knox (Deceuninck-Quick-Step) | ,, |
| 16 | Benjamin Thomas (Groupama-FDJ) | +02’06” |
| 17 | Will Barta (CCC) | +02’12” |
| 18 | Tobias Ludvigsson (Groupama-FDJ) | +02’17” |
| 19 | Rafal Majka (Bora-hansgrohe) | +02’26” |
| 20 | Hermann Pernsteiner (Bahrain-Merida) | +02’27” |
Vuelta a Espana 2019 – general classification after stage 10:
| 1 | Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) | 36:05:29 |
| 2 | Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) | +01’52” |
| 3 | Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana) | +02’11” |
| 4 | Nairo Quintana (Movistar) | +03’00” |
| 5 | Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) | +03’05” |
| 6 | Carl Fredrik Hagen (Lotto Soudal) | +04’59” |
| 7 | Rafal Majka (Bora-hansgrohe) | +05’42” |
| 8 | Nicolas Edet (Cofidis) | +05’49” |
| 9 | Dylan Teuns (Bahrian-Merida) | +06’07” |
| 10 | Wilco Kelderman (Team Sunweb) | +06’25” |
| 11 | Hermann Pernsteiner (Bahrain-Merida) | +08’44” |
| 12 | Mikel Nieve (Mitchelton-Scott) | +08’52” |
| 13 | George Bennett (Jumbo-Visma) | +10’07” |
| 14 | Sergio Higuita (EF Education First) | ,, |
| 15 | Esteban Chaves (Mitchelton-Scott) | +10’47” |
| 16 | Ion Izagirre (Astana) | +12’53” |
| 17 | Marc Soler (Movistar) | +14’13” |
| 18 | Oscar Rodriguez (Euskadi-Murias) | +14’39” |
| 19 | Daniel Martinez (EF Education First) | +15’12” |
| 20 | James Knox (Deceuninck-Quick-Step) | +15’17” |
