John Degenkolb came up just short in his sprint for the win, taking second on stage 10 of the Vuelta. Tom Dumoulin retained his overall lead. Kristian Sbaragli won the stage from a reduced bunch sprint.

Stage 10 of the Vuelta a España went from Valencia to Castellón and included two registered climbs along its 146.6km route. Early in the stage a large escape group of forty riders got away including Lawson Craddock and Johannes Fröhlinger, while all 22 teams were present. Team Giant-Alpecin and Trek Factory Racing initiated the chase as some threats for the GC were in the front as well.

Everything came back together at 50km from the line. On the final climb Team Giant-Alpecin set the pace at the bunch to enforce a bunch sprint for John Degenkolb, but some riders tried to break away. Great work was done by Lawson Craddock and even race leader Tom Dumoulin himself to chase the escapees back, as they were caught 5km from the line.

Kristian Sbaragli (MTN – Qhubeka) was the fastest in the reduced bunch sprint and won the stage. John Degenkolb came close and took 2nd. Tom Dumoulin retained his race lead and will start Wednesday’s stage in the red jersey again.

"I'm happy to still have the red jersey of course but the plan was to go for the win with John," Dumoulin said. "Unfortunately, he got second. It's a shame. We needed all the guys to chase the breakaways and we didn't have anyone left for the lead-out. At least we had a sprint. We can be very proud of the way we rode today but it didn't work out for the win.

“We at the team have the best sprinter here so it was up to us, but there’s only nine riders in any one team. I expected a long fight, but it was actually an advantage having so many riders ahead in the break. Much better 40 than for example 10 riders in the break who would have worked well together. The 40 guys started attacking each other and that helped us in chasing them down.

"I only pulled in the descent and I took some speed in the corners. Everybody was in pain in the descent. I don't think I lost more energy than anybody else. On the climb I was not at my limits. I still feel good.

“We’ll see how it goes. It’s going to be hard for everyone with this kind of weather change. It’s something huge when you go from 35 degrees and humidity to, for example, 10 or 15 degrees, everyone will have problems with that. But I don’t expect it to be worse for me than anyone else.

"Can I win the Vuelta? I don't think so. But I didn't think I would win yesterday. Maybe I should stop thinking and go for it. Thats what I'm going to do on Wednesday."

"So proud of the whole @GiantAlpecin team...what a great effort all day! Personally very disappointed to got boxed in, start my sprint too late," Degenkolb tweeted after the stage.