Vuelta a España overall leader Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d'Epargne) crossed the line three minutes and 42 seconds behind stage winner Simon Gerrans (Saxo Bank) of Australia at the end of stage 10 on Tuesday, but he held onto his gold jersey for another day. Valverde sits seven seconds in front of another Australian Cadel Evans in the GC.
"To enter the city of Murcia with the golden jersey was really something special to me, a great moment of emotion," said Valverde. "And to have the possibility to take my sons Iván and Alejandro in my arms on the podium was lovely."
While Milram's Linus Gerdemann was knocked out of an almost sure stage win thanks to a flat tire and subsequent crash, Valverde had an uneventful day of racing
"The stage was relatively quiet because my teammate Fran Pérez was making part of the breakaway and there was nobody dangerous for the general classification, so we had nothing else to do but control the (overall) situation."
"I forced the pace while climbing the Cresta because I know the descent very well. It is very fast but also very dangerous. It was safer to be ahead of the bunch to go down the hill. I also thought it was a good opportunity for Samuel Sanchez to gain some seconds there, and it was better to be careful."
"There is only one stage left before the rest day and we will see what happens. There are still many stages left to race."
Racers will compete in stage 11 over 191km from Murcia to Caravaca de la Cruz on Wednesday before a rest day on Thursday.
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Sue George is an editor at Cyclingnews. She coordinates all of the site's mountain bike race coverage and assists with the road, 'cross and track coverage.
