WOUT VAN AERT won the 10th stage of the Vuelta a Espana to seal a hat-trick of victories on his debut in the Spanish Grand Tour.
The Belgian Visma-Lease a Bike rider worked with Quentin Pacher on the way to the finish in Galicia, with the French rider leading out but soon accepting defeat against the sprint king.
Australian Ben O’Connor keeps the overall lead from Primoz Roglic on a relaxed afternoon for the red jersey rider, as the peloton rolled in five-and-a-half minutes down on Van Aert.
Eddie Dunbar was 26th today, finishing in the group with all of the main General Classification contenders, and moves up to 22nd overall.
Darren Rafferty was in 74th.
It was a tricky 160 kilometre ride from Ponteareas to Baiona, with four categorised climbs, as the race moved north after Monday’s rest day.
“It’s not too often that I can win when (my family) visits me on the race,” said Van Aert, 29, who celebrated with his loved ones after his victory.
“It was my aim to be in the breakaway, I had a hard time to be honest on the first climb, I almost gave up, I had one more try at the top… for 50km we had to fight for a bit of a gap.”
Van Aert is making his debut on the Vuelta after a disappointing Tour de France, when he was unable to secure any victories.
“I have a versatile profile and when I get in a situation like this I have a chance,” he added.
Midway through the stage the breakway finally got up the road and opened up a significant gap on the peloton, with O’Connor’s team Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale content to let them go as the group contained no general classification threats.
Van Aert took off with around 30km to go and Pacher followed him to form a leading duo.
Groupama-FDJ’s Pacher has never won a pro race and left up against Van Aert, the Frenchman clearly did not fancy his chances.
With 1.6km remaining he burst forward but Van Aert followed and waited on his back wheel, ready for his inevitable sprint triumph.
“It’s not really easy to find a place to attack Wout because he is strong everywhere, so I tried to stay in his wheel and I just gave my best and didn’t think too much,” Pacher told Eurosport.
“I can only be satisfied because I am beaten by a guy who was stronger.”
UAE Team Emirates rider Marc Soler came in third to complete the day’s podium.
O’Connor leads overall by three minutes 53 seconds from three-time winner Roglic.
Wednesday’s stage 11 takes riders on a 166.5km route starting and finishing in Galician town Padron.
Calling van Aert a sprint king is an injustice to his many abilities. The guy can sprint, tt, climb, lead out, not to mention, off road, gravel, mountain biking, cyclo cross. The guy is a phenomenon.
Today was a mountain stage and it was wout that attacked at the foot of the last climb and carried Pacher to the finish. He barely broke sweat at the finish free wheeling across the line – far from a sprint.
As I said he’s a freak and my fav cyclist. Would love him to be given leadership at either vuelta or giro next year or move team to lead.
@Kevin Dillon: I think they’re just saying ‘sprint king’ because he’s leading the points classification. He is indeed a phenom, a proper all rounder can do everything but I don’t think he’ll be given leadership at visma.. in a grand tour anyway. I think Jorgensen has gc aspirations there as well. He’s not an out and out gc rider and while an excellent climber can’t contend with the likes of pog, rog, or jonas in the big mountains but he could be leader for a week long 7 stage race like Paris Nice or something. Not sure he’d even want to be leader as he loves the classics as well.
@robert kelly: yeah my bad rob as he is leading points. In saying that the points in la vuelta is alot harder than the tour as the intermediate sprints are further into the stage and more suited to a rouleur or puncheur. Nothing flat about la Vuelta 2024.
Hear ya also on the team leader, but would still love to see it. Rog moved, kuss got his chance. Give Wout a chance and see what he does.
@Kevin Dillon:
Yea deffo a proper test la vuelta. It’s probably the toughest of them all that’s why there’s very few true sprinters at it. They’ve organised it really well this time I’m really enjoying it. How long can bog Ben stay out there… and I didn’t realise Groves could climb that well either. But yea 100% I’d love to see it too Kev. He’d give it a proper rattle and I’d say he’d be as good if not better than jorgensen or kuss in a leadership role.
Next year tour de france is going to be amazing at least 5 are 6 amazing class riders in it now and all will want to win it
@Square: Hey Square, pog and jonas and nobody else. Who do you think the other 3 or 4 riders that will challenge?
@Kevin Dillon: The guy who won at the olympics is great and primo and the guy who won today all 5 are class
@Square: primoz