French cyclist Bastien Tronchon of the Groupama-FDJ team made an impressive debut in Grand Tour racing by winning the 10th stage of the Vuelta a España on Tuesday, September 1. The race took place in Elche, a city in the province of Alicante, Spain, and was the first stage after a rest day. The route included rolling terrain with three categorized climbs, making it a challenging but not overly mountainous stage. Tronchon's victory came as a surprise, as he edged out top sprinters like Wout van Aert of Visma-Lease a Bike in a chaotic final sprint. The stage had been controlled much of the day by Visma-Lease a Bike, who positioned their British sprinter Matthew Brennan to set up van Aert for a late finish. However, the race took an unexpected turn when Astana’s Yevgeni Fedorov and Pinarello-Q36.5’s Xabier Azparren broke away in the final kilometers, only to be caught very late. This created a last-minute sprint where Tronchon, a relatively unknown name in Grand Tour racing, seized the opportunity. Tronchon described the moment of victory as uncertain. "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," he said. Despite not feeling at his best in the previous days, he stayed focused on his racing style and trusted his team’s strategy. His teammates Valentin Madouas and Guillaume Martin praised the win, noting that the team had faced difficulties this season but were thrilled with the result. This is the third consecutive year that Groupama-FDJ has claimed a victory in the Vuelta, following Stefan Küng in 2024 and David Gaudu in 2025. In the overall standings, Enric Mas of Movistar remains in the lead by 1 minute and 18 seconds over Primoz Roglic of Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe. Wout van Aert still holds the green jersey in the points classification, while Oscar Onley keeps the white jersey for the best young rider and Santiago Buitrago leads in the mountain classification.