John Degenkolb made it four sprint wins from four at the Vuelta a Espana as he took victory on stage 10 in Galicia.

The powerful German (Argos-Shimano) proved too strong for his rivals once again on the gradual uphill finish in Sanxenxo to reclaim the green points jersey in commanding style.

Nacer Bouhanni (FDJ-BigMat) looked to be in the perfect position in the final metres in the wheel of his rival, yet the French national champion had to settle for second spot ahead of Daniele Bennati (RadioShack-Nissan).

Ben Swift placed ninth for Team Sky after the team had hit the front inside the final 15 kilometres, keeping the pace high to ensure team leader Chris Froome was positioned well.

Froome maintained second place overall with Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) still holding an impressive 53-second lead heading into Wednesday’s crucial time trial stage.

190 kilometres of racing on the day saw the peloton snake their way along the Galician coast, safely cresting the only significant climb of the day after just 14.5km.

Two riders went away inside the opening kilometre, Spanish pairing Adrian Palomares (Andalucia) and Javier Aramendia (Caja Rural) making tracks to the tune of 6:42 before the peloton began to get its act together.

With just two riders out front the day was easy to control, the peloton helping to keep the duo at arm’s length with Argos-Shimano and Orica-GreenEDGE helping with the pace-setting duties.

The day provided a perfect test for GC favourites looking to save energy ahead of stage 11 and 39.4km of time trialling against the clock.

Up front the lead pair found themselves all but caught first time across the line in Sanxenxo before finally being reeled in with 33km to go.

Orica-GreenEDGE looked to string things out before, with 15km to go, Team Sky arrived on the front to take it up ahead of the inevitable sprint finish.

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