BILBAO: Jonas Vingegaard claimed the overall Vuelta a Espana lead on Tuesday while Jay Vine earned stage 10 victory for his second triumph of the race.

Two-time Tour de France winner Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) overhauled Torstein Traen’s lead to head the general classification by 26 seconds from the Norwegian, with Joao Almeida third and trailing the Dane by 38 seconds.

“Back in red, I’m happy with it, it’s a beautiful jersey,” said Vingegaard. “I’m happy with how the day went, I was feeling good... every day this week is going to be a fight for the GC (general classification) I think.”

Vine (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) caught and overtook Spain’s Pablo Castrillo (Movistar) on the climb to the finish of the 175.3 km ride from Parque de la Naturaleza Sendaviva to El Ferial Larra Belagua, raising two fingers as he crossed the line.

The 29-year-old — mountains classification winner last year and this year’s leader of the category — also won two stages in 2022.

“Winning is so, so hard, and it’s such an incredible feeling when it happens,” Vine said. “I don’t think I’ll ever get used to winning, because it’s just unbelievably hard.”

Castrillo held on to take second spot, 35 seconds behind Vine, with the Spaniard’s compatriot and teammate Javier Romo finishing third.

Following Monday’s rest day, Tuesday’s stage was a mostly flat ride, with one category three climb along the way before the category one finish, and any early breaks had all been quashed by the peloton.

A group, which eventually included 30 riders, made the decisive break 72km from the end, and they were allowed to get away, though the leading group was whittled down as the race wore on.

There were attacks from the breakaway, with Romo trying to get away, but when Castrillo made his move with seven kilometres remaining, the Spaniard looked set for victory, but Vine reacted and powered past the leader for another stage win.

The riders in the strung out peloton were never going to contest the stage win, but the GC battle commenced on the final climb and Vingegaard, who had already closed the gap to Traeen (Bahrain Victorious) by winning the previous stage, returned to where everyone expected the Dane to be.

Vingegaard was part of a small group which began passing some of the breakaway riders towards the finish, and his 11th-place finish on the stage brings an end to Traeen’s time in the red jersey.

Stage 11 on Wednesday starts and ends in Bilbao, winding 157 kilometres through the verdant Basque Country, and including several short but steep climbs.

Published in Dawn, September 3rd, 2025