On a flat course in Valladolid, Ganna immediately set a sharp target time. Later on, nobody could threaten the Italian champion for the day's victory. What awaited was the battle of the classification riders. Roglic was third, 36 seconds slower than Ganna and 16 seconds slower than his nearest rival, Evenepoel.

"I am happy with this result”, Roglic said. "Evenepoel is the world time trial champion for a reason, so we knew he would be strong today. I could pedal hard all the time, and I felt great. It's also wonderful that Sepp managed to keep the red jersey. It's up to us to defend it in the coming days.”

Kuss was 26 seconds ahead of Marc Soler after the time trial. Evenepoel and Roglic were more than a minute behind the 28-year-old American. "It was the first time I started a time trial in such an important position, but I felt relaxed”, Kuss said. "I was trying to take pleasure in the idea that I was going around in the red jersey, but it was all about pedaling as hard as possible. Being the last rider off the podium to the crowd's cheers gave me a lot of energy.”

"It's only the tenth stage, so there is still a lot to do. I still have a nice advantage over the rest of the field, but with the tough mountain stages ahead of us, I can lose that advantage quickly. We will have to see how the next stages go. I feel good, and both Primoz and Jonas give me a lot of confidence. We are looking forward to it”, Kuss said.

Sports director Grischa Niermann looked back with satisfaction. "We are happy with where we are. Unfortunately, Jonas rode a lesser time trial. We had hoped for a smaller gap for him. With Primoz, we again did an excellent job in the classification, and Sepp rode his best time trial ever. He maintained a respectable lead over the rest of the field, and behind him, we still have two other riders who may contend for the victory in Primoz and Jonas. After ten days, we can say we are in good form.”