With a double acceleration, Almeida puts Vingegaard in red as Vine takes his second win in Vuelta stage 10

Last Monday was an eventful rest day. It became clear that Juan Ayuso was in his final season with UAE Team Emirates - XRG. The Spaniard had been arguing with the team for a long time, but that continued to be a recurring theme in the Vuelta. Before the start of the tenth stage, he once again spoke out about all the fuss: he was furious and called the UAE team management ‘a dictatorship’.

Emotions were running high, but the Vuelta continued regardless, with or without Ayuso. Once again, there was a beautiful mountain stage on the program. It was very similar to Sunday's stage: a relatively flat approach to a not-too-difficult final climb. That didn't have to mean anything for the course of the day, as Jonas Vingegaard (Visma | Lease a Bike) showed on Sunday.

It seemed like a good opportunity for the breakaway riders, but that's what it looked like on Sunday as well. Nothing was certain! This stage was also brutal: the average speed was above 50 km/h in the first hour, and it stayed that way for a long time. This meant that no breakaway was formed.

We had less than 100 kilometers to go, and it was still a constant battle between sprinting and standing still. In a hilly section, even Vingegaard was involved in the action: the Dane joined Victor Campenaerts in an attack, hoping to take advantage of the chaos, but the move failed. At around 70 kilometers, a group finally seemed to break away, without the number 2 in the GC.

No fewer than 30 riders ultimately made the difference. Among them were Vine, Pablo Castrillo (Movistar), Junior Lecerf (Soudal Quick-Step), Harold Tejada (XDS-Astana), Bruno Armirail (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), and Michal Kwiatkowski (INEOS Grenadiers). Gijs Leemreize was also there, together with teammate Kevin Vermaerke (Picnic PostNL).

That group managed to build up a nice lead. On the first categorized climb of the day, which was also the penultimate one, Javier Romo (Movistar) broke away from his breakaway companions. At the top, his lead was half a minute, and the peloton followed 3 minutes behind: would the breakaway riders finally be able to make their move?

It certainly looked that way. Romo was soon joined by Vine, followed by Castrillo, Vermaerke, Alec Segaert (Lotto), Julien Bernard (Lidl-Trek), Archie Ryan (EF Education-EasyPost), Xabier Mikel Azparren (Q36.5), Nicola Conci (XDS-Astana), and Abel Balderstone (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA). This group quickly gained a nice lead over the chasers, who were disorganized. Segaert saw that he was the weakest climber at the front and attacked with 20 kilometers to go.

The Belgian time trialist started the final climb to Larra Belagua with a 40-second lead. Movistar quickly turned up the heat, causing Balderstone and Vermaerke to fall behind. Castrillo took advantage of the teamwork and overtook the poor Belgian. The peloton also got going: UAE Team Emirates - XRG started to accelerate, with Ayuso in the mix.

The Spaniard accelerated hard at the start of the final climb. This caused the riders to drop off in groups, but the pace increased even more when Marc Soler took over. Almeida clearly had plans for the final climb. This meant that Torstein Traeen had to let go: the Norwegian from Bahrain Victorious saw his red jersey in danger. Almeida's acceleration came about 7 kilometers below the summit: the game was on!

In typical Almeida style, he set a fast, steady pace, but seven riders managed to keep up. When he saw that he couldn't break away, he handed over to Visma | Lease a Bike: Matteo Jorgenson set the pace. Meanwhile, Vine had caught up with Castrillo. The Australian managed to drop the tough Spaniard with a second acceleration with 5 kilometers to go. But would it be enough for the win? The gap was still 1.20 minutes with the favorites.

Almeida accelerated again, pushing harder, and only Vingegaard, Pidcock, Jorgenson, and the amazing Matthew Riccitello (Israel-Premier Tech) were able to follow. However, the response from the Visma | Lease a Bike leader was vigorous: he showed no weakness. It was a case of sprinting and standing still, allowing Jai Hindley, Giulio Pellizzari (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe), and Harold Tejada (XDS-Astana) to rejoin the group. An exciting finale!

Bernard, who had fallen behind, brought Ciccone back to the favorites, where a truce was declared. Vine had flown away: he rode to his second stage victory, and Castrillo finished second. A dozen favorites eventually finished more than a minute behind the winner. Traeen lost too much time, putting Vingegaard back in the red.