Alhama de Murcia, Spain, Aug 29.- Italy's Matteo Trentin eased past Spanish veteran Jose Joaquin Rojas to win Stage 10 of La Vuelta as Ireland's Nico Roche moved within 36 seconds of Chris Froome's race lead after an opportunistic dig on the decisive descent.
Trentin, 28, took his second win of the race, and Quick-Step Floors' fourth - after proving the strongest of a 20-man break that eventually animated the 164.4km stage from Caravaca de la Cruz to Alhama de Murcia.
The Italian powerhouse showed his climbing abilities by cresting the summit of the day's big test - the first-category Collado Bermejo - in a four-man counter before riding clear with Movistar's Rojas on a succession of switchbacks ahead of the finish.
After Rojas opened up the final sprint in his native Murcia, Trentin showed the sprinting skills that took him to an earlier victory in Stage 4 - pushing out a resigned Rojas at a relative canter to double his tally and move into the lead in the green jersey points classification.
The remnants of the breakaway arrived in dribs and drabs before BMC's Roche capped a fine display by coming home 29 seconds ahead of the main field to draw level with second-place Colombian Estaban Chaves (Orica-Scott) in the overall standings.
Italian Stage 3 winner Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain Merida) had piled on the pressure on the descent but it was former Sky rider Roche who eventually managed to establish a gap over his old friend in red, Froome.
Heavy rain greeted the remaining 179 riders back to the race after Monday's rest day - and despite numerous attempts, no breakaway formed over the flat opening half of the stage until the showers ceased with around 80km remaining.
Trentin - in green by default - cut his deficit to Froome in the points classification to just three points in the intermediate sprint before South African Jacques Janse Van Rensburg gave some tonic to his ailing Dimension Data team with an attack on the first of two deciding climbs, the Cat.3 Alto del Morron de Totana.
The 187.5km ride from Lorca to the observatory at Calar Alto concludes with back-to-back Cat.1 ascents including the race's first summit finish above 2,000 metres.
STAGE CLASIFICATIONClasificación de la etapa:
.1. Matteo Trentin (ITA/Quick-Step Floors) 3 h 34:56
.2. José Joaquín Rojas (ESP/Movistar) 0:01
.3. Jaime Rosón (ESP/Caja Rural) 0:19
.4. Jacques Janse van Rensburg (RSA/Dimension Data) 0:21
.5. Alexandre Geniez (FRA/AG2R-La Mondiale) 0:56
GENERAL:
.1. Chris Froome (GBR/Sky) 40 h 12:44
.2. Esteban Chaves (COL/Orica-Scott) 0:36
.3. Nicolas Roche (IRL/BMC Racing) 0:36
.4. Vincenzo Nibali (ITA/Bahrain-Merida) 1:17
.5. Tejay van Garderen (USA/BMC Racing) 1:27.