Surprising Frenchman holds off Thibau Nys and Wout van Aert on stage 10 of the Vuelta a España

Bastien Tronchon (Groupama-FDJ) managed to win the tenth stage of the Vuelta a España on Tuesday, the day after the rest day. Surprisingly, the Frenchman held off Wout van Aert (Visma | Lease a Bike), among others, in an uphill sprint.

The peloton will therefore continue without Tadej Pogacar, who was forced to withdraw during the eighth stage. The red jersey wearer took a hard fall, breaking his collarbone and a cervical vertebra, and also suffering a severe concussion. The leader’s jersey went to Enric Mas, who immediately won the ninth stage.

Normally, his position won’t come under pressure in the coming days. The tenth stage started in Alcaraz and will take the riders over rolling terrain to Elche de la Sierra. This terrain is ideal for attackers, but Visma | Lease a Bike may also be looking to contest the sprint with Matthew Brennan, Wout van Aert, and Christophe Laporte.

That’s indeed how it played out. There were still a few skirmishes in the opening stages, but a breakaway group of seven riders pulled away fairly early on. Enzo Paleni (Groupama-FDJ United), Michael Gogl (Alpecin-Premier Tech), Fredrik Dversnes (Uno-X Mobility), Jasha Sütterlin (Jayco AlUla), Fabian Weiss (Tudor), Sinuhé Fernandez (Burgos Burpellet BH), and Ivan Cobo (Kern Pharma) never managed to build much of a lead.

Visma | Lease a Bike and Cofidis joined forces in the peloton. In doing so, Steven Kruijswijk, together with Bruno Armirail, ensured that the breakaway never gained more than a 2-minute lead. This caused nervousness in the leading group approximately 35 kilometers from the finish, where the riders of the Spanish pro-continental teams were dropped.

During that phase, the pace in the peloton also increased further due to several attacks from the Soudal Quick-Step camp, which proved too much for Mads Pedersen of Lidl-Trek. The Dane had already indicated before the stage that he was recovering from an illness, and this was confirmed by his early dropping.

A little later, even the general classification contenders made their presence felt at the front on an uphill section, but at the same time they all cancelled each other out. This gave a small group comprising Tobias Halland Johannessen (Uno-X), Axel Laurance (Netcompany INEOS, who lost Ben Turner along the way) and Kevin Vermaerke (UAE) to pull away for a short while. The emphasis is on ‘a short while’, as the peloton soon came back together.

Meanwhile, Dversnes held his own impressively from the early breakaway, allowing him to tackle the final uphill kilometres with a relatively comfortable lead. Four kilometres from the finish, however, it was all over for him too; Visma | Lease a Bike – with Brennan at the front – seemed to have everything well under control heading towards Elche.

Brennan dropped back one and a half kilometres from the finish, making it clear that the race was for Van Aert. He followed other groups, but that also presented opportunities for attackers: Fedorov and Azparren broke away under the flag. It was, however, Romele who reeled in his own teammate and thus brought Van Aert and co back, but it was Tronchon who won.

1. Bastien Tronchon (Groupama-FDJ)

2. Magnus Cort (Uno-X)

3. Thibau Nys (Lidl-Trek)