Before a terrible mountain weekend, Slovenian Primoz Roglic won Thursday in Suances the 10th stage of the Tour of Spain cycling, and recovered the red jersey that was on the shoulders of his rival Richard Carapaz.
By far the strongest in the final of this mostly flat stage but with the last two kilometers uphill, Roglic won his third stage since the start of this Vuelta, ahead of the Austrian Felix Großschartner (Bora) and the Italian Andrea Bagioli (Deceuninck).
Richard Carapaz seemed much more saddened, only 14th in this final for punchers which corresponds less to his profile than a long climb.
With the 10 seconds bonus that his victory brings him and the 3 seconds he nibbled on Carapaz for a break in the final, Roglic recovers the red jersey he lost last Sunday.
Two major mountain stages this weekend
The candidates for the final victory did not reserve despite the two high mountain stages which await the peloton this weekend and could upset the general classification of this Vuelta.
Roglic and Carapaz, the two main contenders for the final victory, are now perfectly tied before the two big mountain stages of this weekend in the north-west of Spain: four first category passes including the Alto de la Farrapona (16.5 km at 6.2% average) on Saturday, then the terrible Angliru (12.4 km at 9.9%) at the top of which the Sunday stage will be judged.
"We are about the same age, he is a year younger than me, he is as strong as me", reacted Roglic after his victory, summing up the suspense that reigns in the Vuelta with eight stages of the final finish. to Madrid.
The Irishman Dan Martin (Israel SN) and the Briton Hugh Carthy (Education First) are still in contact, respectively 25 and 51 seconds behind Carapaz overall.
The day was animated by a breakaway of four riders: the Spaniard Jonathan Lastra (Caja Rural), the Belgian Brent Van Moer (Lotto-Soudal) and the Dutch Alex Molenaar (Burgos-BH) and Pim Ligthart (Total Direct Energie) .
But this quartet, which had more than 10 minutes in advance and was able for a time to believe in its chances to go to the end, could not face the inexorable return of the peloton, led by riders from Astana, Mitchelton-Scott and Deceuninck, who made the junction 16 km from the finish.
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