Late surge takes Wout van Aert past Quentin Pacher to Vuelta stage 10 win

Wout van Aert won the 10th stage of the Vuelta a España on Tuesday after a last-ditch sprint took him past Quentin Pacher who finished in second place, three seconds behind.
Belgium’s Van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) and the Frenchman Pacher (Groupama-FDJ) broke away from the rest of the group 30km from the end and Van Aert outsprinted his rival to claim his third stage win of the race.
“It’s not too often that I can win when my family visits me on a race so it makes it extra special and really nice,” said Van Aert. “It was really my aim to be in the breakaway but I had a hard time on the first climb. I almost gave up but I gave it one more try just before the top.”
The Spaniard Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates) came third after winning a sprint against the Belgian rider William Junior Lecerf (T-Rex-Quick Step) and Juri Hollmann (Alpecin-Deceuninck) from Germany, just over two minutes behind Van Aert.
Australia’s Ben O’Connor, who finished 22nd in the stage from Ponteareas to Baiona, retained the overall lead. There were no significant moves among the top contenders, as O’Connor maintained his lead of 3min 53sec over Slovenia’s Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe). Richard Carapaz (EF-Easypost) is in third.
“In the end, it was the perfect scenario,” O’Connor (Decathlon AG2R-La Mondiale) said. “It was a really hard start, it took a long time for the break to go. A lot of guys in the top 10 were interested in the breakaway so I think we did a good job today to control the start.
“I think tomorrow, the finale will be a little more decisive. The final climb is a hard one so it will be interesting to see.”