MTN-Qhubeka’s Kristian Sbaragli took his first ever stage win in a European UCI race when he claimed victory on stage 10 of La Vuelta a España in Castellòn on Monday.
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It was the second Grand Tour stage win for the team this season after Steve Cummings took a perfectly scripted Tour de France win on Nelson Mandela Day.
It was the Italian rider Sbaragli’s turn this week as he attacked in the closing kilometre to take the 146km stage win.
He was followed by John Degenkolb (Giant-Alpecin) in second, with José Joaquín Rojas (Movistar) third.
With 16km to go, the 24-year-old went over the top of the category two climb in the top 20 and held on as the peloton rolled towards the finish.
In the last 200m he turned on the afterburners and blitzed to the stage win.
“I was feeling really well on the climb and just didn’t want to miss out again,” said Sbaragli.
“I came so close a few times already in this La Vuelta, so I decided to wait until 200 metres to go before leaving it all out there.”
Teammate Louis Meintjes finished strong to retain his 12th place on the general classification.
