Vuelta a Espana: Primoz Roglic retakes lead with third win on stage 10

Primoz Roglic wins stage 10 of the 2020 Vuelta a Espana

Primoz Roglic retook the overall lead in the Vuelta a Espana from Richard Carapaz with victory on stage 10.

The Slovenian defending champion kicked clear of his rivals in the final 150m of an uphill sprint finish to claim his third stage win of the race.

He finished three seconds ahead of Carapaz and took 10 bonus seconds for victory, meaning the pair are tied on time.

But Roglic takes over the leader’s red jersey on better stage placings so far.

Britain’s Hugh Carthy was caught on the wrong side of a late split and lost 10 seconds, meaning the EF Pro Cycling rider is now 51 seconds back in fourth.

“I’m back in red but it doesn’t really change things for my team,” said Roglic, who took the first leader’s jersey of the race before losing it to Carapaz on stage six.

“We need to keep the momentum going – we have a weekend in the mountains, it will be fun to watch and we’ll do our best.”

The 185km route from Castro Urdiales to Suances was expected to be contested by the sprinters but the 4.5% average gradient in the final kilometre proved steep enough for a wide variety of riders to compete for the stage.

Guillaume Martin launched a strong attack before he was reeled in and Ineos Grenadiers’ Carapaz came to the fore, only for Jumbo-Visma’s Roglic to time his jump perfectly to take the win, adding to his victories on stages one and eight.

Bora-Hansgrohe’s Felix Grossschartner took second just ahead of Andea Bagioli of Deceuninck-Quick-Step, whose sprinter Sam Bennett was dropped with 27km to go.

Ireland’s Dan Martin finished seventh and is now 25 seconds down in third overall.

Saturday’s stage 11 is a tough mountainous route that ends with a summit finish on the Alto de la Farrapona, before Sunday’s stage 12 culminates in the brutal climb of L’Angliru.