La Vuelta 2018: Elia Viviani doubles up after seeing off Peter Sagan in Stage 10

Italian national champion Elia Viviani held off the world champion Peter Sagan and compatriot Giacomo Nizzolo to win Stage 10 and secure his second scalp in La Vuelta – and his seventeen of the season.

Elia Viviani
Elia Viviani

On the predominantly pan-flat 177km stage from Salamanca to Bermillo de Sayago, Viviani benefitted from a perfect lead-out from his Quick-Step Floors train to keep things on script and deliver his Belgian team its 60th success of a stellar season.

It was only ever a battle for second place as Viviani powered through to win by two bike lengths leaving Slovakia’s Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) with his third runner-up spot of the race ahead of Trek-Segafredo’s Nizzolo.

Colombia's Nelson Soto (Caja-Rural) and Frenchman Marc Sarreau (Groupama-FDJ) completed the top five, while Dutchman Danny van Poppel (LottoNL-Jumbo) and Italy’s Matteo Trentin (Mitchelton-Scott) were off the pace, French Stage 6 winner Nacer Bouhanni (Cofidis) failed to make even the top 10.

Despite picking up an untimely puncture inside the final 15km, Great Britain’s Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) retained the red jersey and his slender one-second lead over Spanish veteran Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) on a largely uneventful day under the Spanish sun.

A third second-place for Sagan saw him leapfrog Valverde into the green jersey by two points while Spaniard Luis Angel Mate (Cofidis) retained the blue polka dot jersey.