Bastien Tronchon of Groupama FDJ-United took a surprise victory on stage 10 of the Vuelta a Espana, winning a chaotic sprint for the line and holding off points classification leader Wout van Aert.
Visma-Lease a Bike had controlled the pace for much of the day, with British sprinter Matthew Brennan – already a double stage winner at this Vuelta – coming to the front in the closing kilometres to set up teammate Van Aert for victory in Elche de la Sierra.
But the sprinters’ teams were left scrambling and Brennan’s lead-out unravelled after Astana’s Yevgeni Fedorov broke clear with Pinarello-Q36.5’s Xabier Azparren under the flamme rouge, with the pair caught very late on, setting up a free-for-all in the final couple of hundred metres.
In the end Van Aert had to settle for fourth as Frenchman Tronchon took his first WorldTour victory, with Magnus Cort of Uno-X Mobility coming second and Thibau Nys of Lidl-Trek third.
Tronchon said he wasn’t certain he had actually won when he crossed the line. The 24-year-old said: “I just launched my sprint. I finished on the line but I wasn’t sure if there was some guys in front or not, so I didn’t put my hands in the air, but that’s crazy, I can’t believe it.
“The last few days were really hard for me but today I was good. I said to Guillaume Martin ‘go full gas until you die and I’ll take the rest’. Crazy.
“I wasn’t feeling good last week. But I was like ‘trust the process and we’ll see’. When I took the start I was just like ‘the job is done, now I just need to ride like I like’.”
The 184.7km stage was the first since Monday’s rest day, with a bunch sprint expected despite the rolling parcours and three categorised climbs on the way from Alcaraz to Elche de la Sierra.
There were no changes to the general classification standings as the overall race favourites finished safely within the bunch, with Movistar’s Enric Mas continuing to lead the race by 1’18” from four-time Vuelta winner Primoz Roglic of Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe.
The race continues on Wednesday with another undulating, transitional 151.3km stage from Cartagena to Lorca taking in one third-category climb.