Vuelta a España Stage 10: Visma Loses Control of Wild Sprint Finale as Tronchon Kicks to Unexpected Win

Bastien Tronchon scored a wildly unforecasted sprint victory Tuesday at the Vuelta a España.

The young Frenchman on Groupama-FDJ narrowly outkicked Magnus Cort (Uno-X Mobility) and Thibau Nys (Lidl Trek) after Visma-Lease a Bike lost grip on the race in a chaotic final kilometer of a long, hilly 10th stage.

The “Killer Bees” had the stage on lockdown until a final Hail Mary attack in the final kilometer by Yevgeniy Federov (XDS Astana) and Mikel Azparren (Pinarello-Q36.5) threw a wrench into its perfectly laid plans.

The late two-up move left the sprint teams scrambling to keep control, and the peloton spiraled into a hot mess as it panicked to bridge the gap.

Tronchon wasn’t waiting for a leadout.

The 24-year-old turned on the burners at around 150 meters to go, pulled the peloton past Federov and Azparren just 30 meters out, and still had the legs to beat the pack to the line.

After a day of Visma control, Wout van Aert finished fourth, just a few meters from the podium.

Enric Mas (Movistar) finished safe in the bunch with all his GC rivals, meaning the GC remains unaltered.

After the brutal exit of Tadej Pogačar, the great Spanish hope rides into stage 11 with a 1:18 gap over Primož Roglič (Red Bull Bora-Hansgrohe).

Felix Gall (Decathlon CMA CGM) is a further 21 seconds back on Roglič.

Tough verdict from Van Aert: ‘I leave the stage with quite some disappointment’

Tronchon could barely believe he won at the finish. The 24-year-old’s victory Tuesday was the biggest of his career, and one nobody would have predicted – maybe not even the rider himself.

“It’s crazy, I cannot believe this,” Tronchon said at the finish. “The last few days were really hard for me.

My preparation this year was not really good. I didn’t feel good last week; it was strange, not like the other years,” Tronchon said. “I just said, ‘trust the process, and we’ll see.’”

Van Aert could barely contain his frustration when he spoke at the finish Tuesday.

Visma-Lease a Bike committed fully and sacrificed Matthew Brennan as it handed Van Aert his first chance to sprint at this Vuelta.

“It was hard terrain today and something that should suit me – I like to sprint with tired legs,” Van Aert said at the line. “I came up short, so I’m disappointed with the result, but I’m really proud of all the work the team put in.

“We used the whole team to make it a sprint but I couldn’t finish it off. I leave the stage with quite some disappointment.

“It’s just a shame I lost position in the final kilometer there. I had to make a big effort with 500 to go, then I didn’t have much left for the sprint,” he said.

But it’s not all bad for Van Aert– he’s still comfortably in control of the green jersey classification after stage-winner Tronchon started the day way down the rankings.

Sprinters lose golden opportunity in hilly parcours

The Vuelta a España rebooted for week 2 with a long, relentlessly hilly stage deep in the Albacete.

The rolling terrain and shallow grades across the course were perfect for the small crop of fast finishers that dared show up to what’s statistically the hardest grand tour of the year.

Van Aert, Brian Coquard, and Mads Pedersen all pack a sprinting punch after a day in the hills. And with some 2,600 meters of climbing, it wasn’t out of reach of Brennan and Jordi Meeus either.

A strong break of seven formed early in the stage, but Visma-Lease a Bike and Cofidis were on a mission.

The two teams gave the break a reasonable gap before they trimmed it to around 1 minute ahead of a flurry of attacks over the final categorized climb of the stage at 40km to go.

Attacking chaos on final climb

Eddie Dunbar (Pinarello-Q36.5) and Valentin Paret-Peintre (Soudal Quick Step) were first to move as the stage briefly descended into chaos on the 10km long Puerto de Secovos.

After starting the stage as a favorite and hopeful for his chances, Pedersen found himself struggling at the back as Dunbar and Paret-Peintre opened up the bunch.

It soon became apparent that Visma-Lease a Bike was putting its chips on Van Aert after Brennan already won two stages of this Vuelta a España. The young Brit helped neutralize many of the threats.

Kevin Vermaerke was next to throw a haymaker. With Poačar out of the race, his teammates at UAE Emirates-XRG were off the leash.

GC stars Sepp Kuss, Richard Carapaz, and maillot rojo Mas were quick to respond to the American’s moves in what might be a sign of a wild race to come.

However, all the attacks ultimately neutralized each other and Visma-Lease a Bike was able to keep the stage in play.

The race looked poised for a big bunch kick as the peloton roared into a twisting town-center finale – until Federov launched the attack that upended every sprinter’s strategy.

Vuelta a España stage 10 results