Ben O'Connor has retained his lead in the Vuelta a Espana and established a new Australian record in the Spanish grand tour.
The Perth rider completed a fifth day in the leader's red jersey, eclipsing the previous record of four (when it was gold) achieved by Sydney's Bradley McGee in 2005.
O'Connor (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) rode a watchful race on stage ten, keeping an eye on his rivals for the general classification, and preserving his advantage over them.
The 159.6 km stage from Ponteareas to Baiona, over a series of climbs in Galicia, was won by Wout Van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike). It was the Belgian's third stage win of the race, further cementing his lead over Australia's Kaden Groves in the points competition.
Van Aert got into an early five-man breakaway, went away from that with Frenchman Quentin Pacher (Groupama-FDJ) 30 km from the finish, then sprinted clear to claim his third stage win of the race. Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates) was third.
O'Connor, the first Australian to lead the overall standings in the second week of La Vuelta, said at Tuesday's start he had enjoyed Monday's rest day and was looking to "tick each day off as they come, and see how long this story can last - I'm not at the end of my reserve yet."
After coming home with the main peloton, five minutes, 31 seconds behind Van Aert, he described it as "a good day", adding: "I'm really happy with how it went. I felt we had it all under control.
"In the end, it was the perfect scenario. It was a really hard start, it took a long time for the break to go. A lot of guys in the top 10 were interested in the breakaway so I think we did a good job today to control the start.
"I think tomorrow, the finale will be a little more decisive. The final climb is a hard one so it will be interesting to see."
Stage 11 is a 166.5 km circular ride around more mountains in Spain's northwest beginning and ending in Padron.
O'Connor remains 3.53 ahead of Slovenian Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) with Ecuador's Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) 39 seconds further adrift.
Van Aert's win doubled his lead over Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck) in the green jersey sprinters' contest from 41 points to 81.
"It was really my aim to be in the breakaway but I had a hard time on the first climb. I almost gave up but I gave it one more try just before the top," said Van Aert.
