Kristian Sbaragli outfoxed the rest of the bunch to snatch the 10th stage of the Vuelta ahead of favourite John Degenkolb (Giant-Alpecin) and Spain's Jose Joaquin Rojas (Movistar). Ideally set-up, the Italian launched his sprint from far to upset his more renowned rivals and hand his MTN-QHubeka outfit their first stage victory on the Vuelta.
Overall leader Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin) worked hard in the finale to lead Degenkolb out and while failing to offer him a stage win, retained his red jersey.
The start was given at 14:12 to 182 riders. Spain's Amets Txurruka (Caja-Rural) loses ground from the start as does former stage winner Caleb Ewan (Orica-Greenedge), who calls it quits a little bit later.
From the bottom of Puerto de coronet (3rd cat.), 37 riders broke clear -- Ian Boswell, Salvatore Puccio, Sergio Henao, Dario Cataldo (Team Sky), Mickael Cherel, Matteo Montaguti (ag2r-La Mondiale), Carlos Verona (Etixx-Quick Step), Riccardo Zoidl (Trek Factory), Eduard Vorganov, Tiago Machado (Katusha), Romain Hardy, Daniel Navarro (Cofidis), Darwin Atapuma, Amael Moinard, Peter Velits (BMC), Lawson Craddock (Giant-Alpecin), Tsgabu Grmay, Rubén Plaza (Lampre-Merida), George Bennett, Martijn Keizer (LottoNL-Jumbo), Luis León Sánchez (Astana), Lawrance
Warbasse (IAM), Andrey Amador, Imanol Erviti (Movistar), Ángel Madrazo, Pello Bilbao, David Arroyo (Caja Rural), Stephen Cummings, Natnael Berhane (MTN-Qhubeka), Maxime Monfort, Jurgen Van den Broeck (Lotto-Soudal), Rodolfo Torres, Carlos Quintero (Colombia), Davide Villella, Benjamin King (Cannondale-Garmin), Kenny Elissonde (FDJ), Cameron Meyer (Orica-GreenEdge).
They led the rest of the pack by 2:30 after 44 km.
Shortly before the summit, Verona et Zoidl went and led the first group by 55 seconds at kilometer 60 with the pack 2:05 back.
Everything went quickly back to normal on the long flat section and the pack gradually pulled back all the escapees, the last of them being reeled in 48 km from the line. A few kilometers earlier, Nicola Roche (Sky), 4th overall, had hit the tarmac before being brought back by his team-mates.
Several attempts took place, the most serious launched by Niki Terpstra (Etixx-Quick Step). The Dutch champion stayed for 14 km in the front before being reined in by Alejandro Valverde's Movistar team-mates Erviti, Sutherland and Ventoso, who reached the intermediate sprint of Benicassim in that order.
The ascent of the 2nd cat. Alto del Desierto de La Palmas split the pack again as Alessandro de Marchi (BMC) went, quickly joined by Romain Sicard (Europcar). Kenny Elissonde (FDJ) caught them and went on his own with 20 km to go, came first at the top and we pulled back in the descent. Red jersey holder Tom Dumoulin himself took the reins of the peloton, working for John Degenkolb. The work paid off as the three were pulled back with 5 km to go. But in the finale, Degenkolb was never in contention to go for victory as he launched his sprint far too late to overcome the cunning Sbaragli, who hand his MTN-Qhubeka team their first
Vuelta stage win. Degenkolb had to be content with second place ahead of Spain's Jose Joaquin Rojas (Movistar).
