Stage ten of the Vuelta a España (Valencia-Castellon, 146 km) seemed poised to be won from a break. Instead, once again the many attempts to get clear from the bunch were unsuccessful, so the day ended up with a sprint, won from a group of around 60 riders by Kristian Sbaragli (MTN-Qhubeka), ahead of John Degenkolb (Giant-Alpecin) and Jose Joaquin Rojas (Movistar).

The riders of Team Colombia-Coldeportes tried more than once to go into a breakaway: Carlos Julian Quintero and Rodolfo Torres were part of a huge group of 40 cyclists who escaped on the first climb of the day, Puerto del Oronet, but having the likes of Sergio Henao (Team Sky) and Daniel Navarro (Cofidis) there – both important men in the GC – meant that the group’s chances of succeeding were doomed. A little bit later, Leonardo Duque tried his luck together with Niki Terpstra (Etixx-Quick Step) before the second category ascent of Alto del Deserto de las Palmas, but once again they didn’t get green light from the peloton.

More attacks came on the final climb, but Giant-Alpecin controlled the situation and the peloton was all together with 10 kilometers to go. However, the German failed to capitalize on his favorite status and launched his sprint too late, thus allowing Sbaragli to land the win. Despite of that, his team can still be happy, as Tom Dumoulin enters the first rest day of the race wearing the leader’s jersey.

Alex Cano, 63rd at the finish, was the best placed rider of Team Colombia-Coldeportes today: “This rest day comes at the right time," said sports director Valerio Tebaldi. “It will help the riders who were hit by a virus or involved in a crash to fully recover. Wednesday, when the race resumes, we will be very motivated to fight again”.