Primoz Roglic produced a brilliant finish to claim an unlikely victory on stage 10 at the Vuelta a Espana on Friday and move back into the race leader’s jersey.
The 185km flat route from Castro Urdiales to Suances had been earmarked as one for the sprinters. However, the Slovenian showed fantastic timing to launch away from the main group inside the final 100 metres of the uphill finish in Cantabria on Spain’s northern coast.
Sam Bennett, who was relegated to the final position in the bunch for barging into another rider in the closing stages of yesterday’s ride having initially won the sprint, was surprisingly dropped with 27km to go.
From there on in teams fought to protect their general classification contenders and it was a strategy that worked perfectly for Roglic and his Jumbo-Visma team mates.
Roglic’s strong finish meant he pulled away from a group containing red jersey wearer Richard Carapaz, whom he started the day 13 seconds behind, finishing three seconds ahead of the Ecuadorian.
His 10-second stage win bonus moved him back into the race lead, level on time with the Ineos rider.
The race returns to the mountains on Saturday, with a punishing 170km stage that takes in five categorised climbs – four of which are first category – from Villaviciosa, finishing at the summit of the Alto de la Farrapona.
