La Vuelta 2026 – Stage 10 [FULL STAGE]

September 1, 2026

81st La Vuelta Ciclista a España 2026 🇪🇸 (2.UWT) ME – Stage 10 – Alcaraz – Elche de la Sierra : 184,7 km

Vuelta a España 2026 is a UCI WorldTour stage race run across varied Spanish terrain, typically combining high mountains, rolling inland roads, technical city finishes, and exposed transitional stages that can all shape the general classification. The route usually asks riders to manage long climbs, steep ramps, heat, and late-race fatigue, with recovery between decisive stages becoming a central factor. Crosswinds on flatter days, narrow roads in historic towns, and sharp changes in gradient can make even moderate stages tactically tense. Race dynamics often revolve around team control in the mountains, breakaways seeking opportunities on transitional terrain, and repeated attacks on summit finishes or steep uphill drags. Typical stage profiles may include alpine-style climbing days, medium-mountain stages, sprint opportunities, and technical finales that reward good positioning. The finishing style varies widely, from bunch sprints on flatter stages to solo arrivals or small-group battles after selective climbs. The race favors consistency, climbing depth, and resilience across three demanding weeks.

Bastien Tronchon (Groupama-FDJ United) took a huge and surprising win on stage 10 of the Vuelta a España, coming round two late attackers right in the final metres to win a messy sprint into Elche de la Sierra.

The peloton had to chase down a late move from Yevgeniy Fedorov (XDS Astana) and Xabier Azparren (Pinarello Q36.5) in the challenging final kilometre, and it looked like they might not make it, but a huge turn of speed saw Tronchon come round the pair to win.

Magnus Cort (Uno-X Mobility) took second whilst Thibau Nys (Lidl-Trek) finished third after a punchy and attacking finale and fast finish.

Visma-Lease a Bike did much of the chasing on Tuesday as several riders and teams tried to disrupt the chances for a sprint, with stage winner Matthew Brennan taking up the role of helper with some big turns to set up Wout van Aert. However, their efforts were not rewarded, with Van Aert setting for fourth, though he does add points to his green jersey campaign.

Earlier in the day, a seven-rider breakaway had been up the road for much of the stage, but the final survivor, Fredrik Dversnes (Uno-X Mobility), was caught in the final 5km after the peloton shut down several late attacks.

Late attackers Fedorov and Azparren nearly got the jump on the bunch, but were just swept up in the final metres, with the Kazakh rider settling for 12th on the line, sixth for the Spaniard.

So hectic was the finale that Tronchon himself wasn’t quite sure if he’d won or not when he crossed the line.

“I launched my sprint and I finished it on the line, but I wasn’t sure if there was some guys in front or not, so I did not put my hands in the air,” he explained at the finish. “It’s crazy. I can’t believe it.

“The last two days were really hard for me, and today I was good. I said to Guillaume [Martin] ‘go full gas until you die’ and I take the win, so it’s crazy.

“Really not,” he said when asked if he thought he could do something like this in the Vuelta. “Because the preparation was not really good, I didn’t feel good in the last weeks, it was a bit strange, not like the other years, but I was like ‘trust the process, and we’ll see’. When I took the start I was like ‘OK, the job is done so now I just need to race like I like to, and go for all’.”

With no major GC action on stage 10, Enric Mas (Movistar) continues to lead the Vuelta by 1:18 from Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), with no changes to the green, mountains or white jersey wearers – Wout van Aert, Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain Victorious) and Oscar Onley (Netcompany Ineos) respectively.

Not a straightforward day for anyone in the Spanish hills
It was a fairly quick breakaway formation on Tuesday, with the uncategorised climb straight out the gate offering a prime launchpad for a group of seven to go clear in the first 15km. They were Enzo Paleni (Groupama-FDJ United), Michael Gogl (Alpecin-Premier Tech), Jasha Sütterlin (Jayco AlUla), Fabian Weiss (Tudor Pro Cycling), Sinuhé Fernández (Burgos Burpellet BH) and Iván Cobo (Equipo Kern Pharma), soon joined by a counter-move from Fredrik Dversnes (Uno-X Mobility).

They quickly built a lead of two minutes, but were not given much more than that as the peloton clearly wanted to keep the situation under control. Over the first categorised climb, Paleni won maximum points, and then the situation stayed fairly stable all the way to the next climb with 100km to go. Weiss won maximum points there, and the pace did increase a touch on the climb, but things settled again shortly after and the break entered the final 70km with the same two-minute gap.

All seven riders in the break led into the final 50km, but eventually the peloton did start turning up their chasing efforts, mainly led by Visma-Lease a Bike, with Van Aert in green and Brennan also a possible stage winner, and Cofidis, team of stage 8 winner Bryan Coquard.

The leaders were working well together, and making it as hard as possible for the chase, with the gap only down to 1:25 with 35km to go. The action kicked off on the final climb, the Puerto de Socovos, as Paleni, Gogl, Dversnes, Cobo and Weiss started to push on ahead of their break companions at the base of the 9km climb. Meanwhile, behind, some more opportunistic teams tried to go on the attack on the climb, forcing Visma especially to close things down.

Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) struggled fairly early on the final climb, putting paid to his chances of a win on stage 10 as attacks forced a high pace on the ascent. Eddie Dunbar (Pinarello-Q36.5) chipped off the front of the bunch with 29km to go as the gap dipped below a minute, but the peloton still weren’t quite getting organised behind, which played into the hands of the leaders.

Near the top, even the GC riders started to get involved as Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) put in a little dig that lured Mas and Sepp Kuss (Visma-Lease a Bike) into a reaction. Matthew Brennan was also covering moves for Visma, the first sign that the Brit might not be the team’s designated sprinter of the day.

Over the top of the climb, Paleni, Gogl, Dversnes and Cobo led by just 30 seconds into the final 20km. Despite the lack of an organised chase behind, the constant attacks meant a high pace that was eating into the break’s advantage. Onto the descent and the flat, Visma tried to get things back under control, and that cut the gap in half in a matter of minutes.

Despite the four leaders’ best efforts, with Gogl and Dversnes the final survivors, they were reeled back in with 7km to go. Gogl yielded, but Dversnes pushed on for as long as possible, joining up with an attack from behind. With five attackers with him, it took a long time for the final catch to be fully completed. All but one were caught with 4km to go, with Walter Calzoni (Pinarello-Q36.5) launching a last-ditch attempt, but he too was caught with 2km to go after a big pull from Brennan.

Brennan pulled off relatively early, leaving Van Aert fairly isolated for a tough finale, and no one reacted immediately with Fedorov and Azparren attacked into the final kilometre.

It was a hectic sprint behind them, with no real lead-outs to speak off and most riders having to surf the wheels. Tronchon went early, but that proved to be the right strategy as he carried a winning speed right to the line for his first Grand Tour stage win.

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