Pellizzari takes over from Ayuso but feels Tiberi breathing down his neck: "Finally a good feeling"

Pellizzari took over from Ayuso, who had to let go halfway up the final climb. The Spaniard ultimately lost almost 8 minutes to the favorites. The young Italian is pleased with the lead in the youth classification. “Today was tough. When I saw that Ayuso had to let go, I thought about the jersey.” Ayuso's being dropped came as a surprise, he said on the Vuelta website. “I don't know what happened [to Ayuso], but I didn't expect it. Today is a really emotional day for me. I hope that I will keep it for a long time.”

The white jersey comes a day after a strong team time trial, in which the team suffered a blow. Matteo Sobrero crashed hard, but he is still in the race. "Yesterday we could win, we did not win, but we were happy that Sobrero was okay [after his crash]. Today he suffered a lot, but he's still with us. We were happy and proud of the result. Red jersey is really important here, but now I have the white jersey, so I'm happy and we will see tomorrow what will happen.“

At 38 seconds behind his compatriot, Tiberi is still in contention for the youth classification. The Italian from Bahrain Victorious showed himself at the front in the stage to Andorra and crossed the finish line together with Pellizzari. There, he reacted with satisfaction to the microphone of Eurosport. “I'm pretty tired, but I can say today that I finally feel good in the race.”

Tiberi's Vuelta got off to a very slow start. On the first mountain finish, he lost 21 seconds to the winner, Jonas Vingegaard, and in the team time trial, he lost half a minute to the winning UAE Team Emirates. The finish in Andorra is therefore a boost. “This is my best day since the start of the Vuelta, it's going as I expected. I thought I would warm up a bit after the first week and feel better, so I'm happy with how it feels now.”

A fantastic bonus was that teammate Torstein Traeen won the red jersey. “Torstein rode a great stage; he managed to get into the leading group of the day and was the best placed in the GC. He took the jersey; he deserves it. I'm happy for him. Let's see what the team has to say about it now. Tomorrow will be a tough stage and a very competitive finale,” Tiberi concludes.