Vuelta a Espana 2015: Stage 10 Results, Updated Standings and Highlights

Kristian Sbaragli shocked John Degenkolb to win Stage 10 of the 2015 Vuelta a Espana in a bunch sprint, narrowly beating the German star by inches thanks to a perfect jump.

Degenkolb had to come from far back to launch his sprint and just couldn't pass the Italian, who grabbed one of the best wins of his young career. Tom Dumoulin remains the overall leader heading into the rest day.

Here are the full results and updated standings:

Pos	Rider	Time
1	Kristian Sbaragli (Ita) MTN - Qhubeka	03:12:43
2	John Degenkolb (Ger) Team Giant-Alpecin	Same Time
3	Jose Joaquin Rojas (Spa) Movistar Team	Same Time
4	Tosh Van der Sande (Bel) Lotto Soudal	Same Time
5	Jose Goncalves (Por) Caja Rural-Seguros RGA	Same Time
6	Matteo Montaguti (Ita) AG2R La Mondiale	Same Time
7	Jens Keukeleire (Bel) Orica-GreenEdge	Same Time
8	Daryl Impey (RSA) Orica-GreenEdge	Same Time
9	Pieter Serry (Bel) Etixx-QuickStep	Same Time
10	Valerio Conti (Ita) Lampre-Merida	Same Time

Pos	Rider	Time
1	Tom Dumoulin (Ned) Team Giant-Alpecin	38:34:56
2	Joaquim Rodriguez (Spa) Team Katusha	00:00:57
3	Esteban Chaves (Col) Orica-GreenEdge	00:00:59
4	Fabio Aru (Ita) Astana Pro Team	00:01:13
5	Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar Team	00:01:17
6	Nairo Quintana (Col) Movistar Team	00:01:17
7	Christopher Froome (GBr) Team Sky	00:01:18
8	Rafal Majka (Pol) Tinkoff-Saxo	00:01:47
9	Domenico Pozzovivo (Ita) AG2R La Mondiale	00:01:52
10	Mikel Nieve (Spa) Team Sky	00:02:17

Stage 10 looked to give the sprinters the best opportunity to battle it out for a win one more time, although a short climb less than 20 kilometres from the finish line gave hope to the more adventurous riders.

Early in the stage, a massive group of 38 riders broke away from the peloton, but given the flat nature of the course, the breakaway was never likely to survive until the finish line. Dumoulin's troops kept the pace fairly high, which in turn took its toll on the other riders in the pack.

Caleb Ewan, the young sprinter who won a stage earlier this Vuelta and was one of the favourites for Monday's stage, abandoned the race after just 50 kilometres. This year's race hasn't been kind to the sprinters, as noted by Eurosport's Felix Lowe:

As the riders neared the base of the Alto del Desierto de las Palmas, the gap at the front had shrunk to less than a minute. At this point, the peloton wasn't holding back, making life hard on riders looking for the break.

Niki Terpstra tried his luck, as did Kenny Elissonde, but neither managed to gain enough of a lead to worry the peloton on the flat stretch after the climb.

At the summit of the climb, three riders had a 25-second lead over the peloton: Alessandro De Marchi and Romain Sicard and Elissonde, with whom the former two had bridged the gap.

In the background, it was Dumoulin himself who led the peloton through the descent. Given he's the overall leader, that somewhat surprised cycling writer Mikkel Conde:

"

Dumoulin basically closed the gap to Brambilla, then stopped - gap increased - and now Dumoulin is chasing for Degenkolb again. Oh well...

— Mikkel Condé v2.0 (@mrconde) August 31, 2015"

Sergio Henao endured a miserable day, having to waste plenty of energy to find the peloton again after an early mechanical failure, and he suffered a crash during the descent. While it was bad news for the Team Sky rider, it did give spectators a good laugh―while he managed to stop himself from going down a cliff, his bike wasn't so lucky, via Procyclingnews.eu:

Stage favourite Degenkolb survived the climb and descent reasonably well, and heading into the finale, he was still flanked by two team-mates—including Dumoulin. With five kilometres left to race, the three riders at the front gave up, setting the stage for a bunch sprint.

In that sprint, Giant-Alpecin failed to launch Degenkolb from an ideal position, which meant the German had to battle his way to the front of the peloton on his own. He almost managed to pull it off, beating everyone but Sbaragli to the line.

As shared by this fan, it was really, really close:

As reported by Cycling News' live blog, the winner later told reporters he was extra-motivated because his family and wife were at the finish line. He added: "It is a dream come true for me because it's been four times in this Vuelta that I've tried to do my sprint and today when I crossed the finish line, I still cannot believe it. It is a dream for me and a dream for MTN-Qhubeka."

The peloton will enjoy its first rest day on Monday, although the riders may have trouble sleeping thinking of what's to come. They'll travel to the Pyrenees for the first real mountain stage of this year's Vuelta on Tuesday, and the ride toward Alto Els Cortals d'Encamp looks absolutely brutal.

As noted by Cycling News, race director Javier Guillen believes it's the toughest stage the Vuelta has ever seen, and while it seems heresy to call any stage that doesn't include the legendary Angliru the toughest stage in Vuelta history, he does have a point. 

With a total of six (!) categorised climbs, Tuesday's stage is the stuff of nightmares, but it is where the battle for the general classification will really begin. The riders better enjoy their day off on Monday―they'll need all the rest they can get.

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