After a fabulous 3rd place in the TTT, EF Education Easyposts' debutant rookie Andrea Piccolo rides into the red jersey and leads by 11s. Despite the storm and treacherous, flooded roads, Piccolo attacked on the first climb, the Coll de Sant Bartomeu and got clear with four other riders. The twenty-two-year-old kept it going up to the Castel de Montjuic as the other riders in the break faded. He had the advantage and took bonus seconds to secure the red jersey.
"From the start, the whole bunch knew it would be crazy. I thought, maybe in front it would be better than to stay in the group. It was! I saw the soigneur, the doctor, our media manager, but we didn't know for sure if we had got the red jersey. We started the race with a six-second gap and we crossed the line where the GC was neutralized with a 15 or 20-second gap. I knew that maybe only two guys in the race could make up the difference with the bonus seconds for the red jersey, but we had to wait until the confirmation."
-Andrea Piccolo secures the red and white jersey.
"I already believed in victory this morning. With the wet roads and also the neutralization there would be opportunities and personally I worked very hard towards this Vuelta. I always said that I would dedicate my first win in a Grand Tour to my late mother, but the team is going through a very difficult period at the moment and that is why I would like to dedicate this victory to Tijl De Decker. My mom will have to wait a while, but hopefully that second victory will come soon."
-Andreas Kron
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