Michael Storer wins Stage 10 at 2021 La Vuelta a Espana

Michael Storer has won his second stage at the 2021 La Vuelta a Espana with Stage 10 on Aug. 24.

Western Australian rider Michael Storer has stormed the competition to win Stage 10 of 2021 La Vuelta a Espana, his second La Vuelta stage win.

He is now the second Australian rider after Michael Matthews to win two La Vuelta stages.  The entire stage from Roquetas de Mar to Rincon de la Victoria was full unexpected surprises and twists and turns.

Odd Christian Eiking takes overall race lead

Starting the day at nine minutes and ten seconds overall race leader Primoz Roglic, Norwegian rider for Team Intermarche-Wanty-Gobert Odd Christian Eiking managed to take away the overall race lead and the red jersey by the end of the stage. He is now only the second Norwegian rider to ever lead the La Vuelta race.

Things started out as expected with a breakaway forming and gapping the peloton with Trentin the hot favorite to win the stage.

Trentin tried to move away from the breakaway as the breakaway group continued to put more distance between them and the peloton until the gap was 12 minutes and Eiking realized he was the virtual race leader at that point.

Michael Storer surprises everyone

Trentin broke away and was caught by the group at the base of the climb at which point the attacks began but it was Michael Storer who soared past the competition.

He maintained a strong lead as what was left of the breakaway including Vansavenant and Champoussin tried to catch him, opening it up a bit more on the final descent before the gap dropped to 25 seconds near the finish line.

As the peloton group at 12 minutes behind hit the final climb, Primoz Roglic stormed ahead to try and make up some time on the overall classification so that he didn’t have to catch up as much in later stages to take back the race lead.

Enric Mas, Miguel Angel Lopez and Jack Haig tried to follow him so that they gained time on Adam Yates and Egan Bernal who were in group 6 on the road.

Roglic overestimated himself on the descent into the final and crashed allowing Mas, Lopez and Haig to catch him and he rode in, making his overall time drop to just over two minutes behind Eiking.

2021 La Vuelta a Espana overall standings after Stage 10

Eiking is now in first place overall, with Martin in second, Roglic in third, Mas in fourth, Lopez in fifth and Haig in sixth.

Bernal is in seventh, Kuss in eighth, Yates in ninth and Grosschartner, previously second place, conserving his losses to be in tenth and still in contention.