Bastien Tronchon of Groupama FDJ-United claimed a surprise victory on stage 10 of the Vuelta a Espana, winning a chaotic sprint in Elche de la Sierra and holding off points classification leader Wout van Aert.
Visma-Lease a Bike controlled much of the day, with British sprinter Matthew Brennan – already a double stage winner – leading out Van Aert. But the sprint trains were disrupted when Astana's Yevgeni Fedorov and Pinarello-Q36.5's Xabier Azparren broke clear under the flamme rouge, only being caught very late.
In the final dash, Tronchon took his first WorldTour victory, with Magnus Cort second and Thibau Nys third. Van Aert had to settle for fourth.
The 24-year-old Frenchman admitted he was not sure he had won at the line. "I just launched my sprint. I finished on the line but I wasn't sure if there was some guys in front or not, so I didn't put my hands in the air, but that's crazy, I can't believe it," he said.
The 184.7km stage, the first after Monday's rest day, featured three categorised climbs. There were no changes to the general classification, with Movistar's Enric Mas still leading by 1'18" from four-time Vuelta winner Primoz Roglic.