"It was an incredibly fast day" - American revelation enters Vuelta top-10 as other favourites crumble

Matthew Riccitello continues to excell in the mountains of Vuelta a Espana and after stage 10 enters the top-10 of general classification, crossing the finish line as a seventh best rider from the peloton on the day. So far, the 23-year-old American made no mistakes and is now only 27 seconds shy off Giulio Pellizzari, the current holder of the white jersey for best young rider.

Following the first rest day, the tenth stage of Vuelta a Espana from Parque de la Naturaleza Sendaviva to El Ferial Larra Belagua brought about a first relentless breakaway battle, and a group of attackers was only let go by the peloton at a halfway point of the day. It was a tremendously hard start after a day off that promised to test everyone's readiness for the second block of racing.

"It was an incredibly fast day, the entire stage," Riccitello recounted the day in an interview for Eurosport. "It took forever for the leading group to break away, which isn't ideal for guys who are on the wheel and don't want to go along. Such a tough day also made the final climb more selective."

"All I could do today was follow. I'm happy not to have been dropped by Vingegaard and the others, and with how the race has gone so far. I'm really taking it day by day; there are still so many tough stages to come," he said cautiously.

UAE Team Emirates - XRG set a hard pace at the foot of the last ascent that saw many GC contenders lose touch with the front group as well as important time towards the overall standings - but not Matthew Riccitello. The Israel - Premier Tech leader hung on with the likes of Joao Almeida and Jonas Vingegaard to arrive 12th on the day, while Felix Gall or Egan Bernal lost precious time.

"Ayuso set a very high pace from the bottom, for about one or two kilometers. João (Almeida, ed.) tried to break away, leaving a small group. Jorgenson set the pace from there, also because it flattened out towards the top and riders stopped trying."

Therefore, we see Riccitello's GC position improve from 13th to 10th, 2:43 behind the new leader Jonas Vingegaard, but only 40 seconds away from what would be a sensational top-5 result. That rank is currently occupied by Austrian Felix Gall, but with six world-class climbers (including Riccitello) within a minute of Gall, anything could happen in the next two weeks.