Defending champion Primoz Roglic surged clear to claim victory on stage 10 of the Vuelta a Espana and take the red jersey back off Richard Carapaz.

The Jumbo-Visma rider dominated the uphill finish in Friday's predominantly flat 185-kilometre stage from Castro Urdiales to Suances for his third stage victory.

Roglic moved up in Andrea Bagioli's slipstream and took 10 bonus seconds to move level with erstwhile General Classification leader Carapaz, who lost three seconds.

He takes the race jersey by virtue of his superior placings in the first 10 stages and is the favourite to retain the title he won last year.

"It's beautiful. What can I say? I'm super happy," Roglic said. "It's never easy to win but I had the legs, and it's really, really nice.

"I'm one year older and stronger. Like a wine, the older the better. I'm again in red, but it doesn't really change much for our team.

"We need to keep the momentum and the focus. A weekend in the mountains is coming, so we will do our best."

Sam Bennett was the pre-stage favourite but was dropped with 27km to go, a day after being denied victory on stage nine for barging into Emils Liepins.

Bora-Hansgrohe's Felix Grossschartner had greater success, finishing second to Roglic, while Bagioli (Deceuninck-Quick-Step) was third.

Dan Martin was one of seven other riders to be given the same time as the stage winner, meaning he is within 25 seconds of the overall race lead.

STAGE RESULT

1. Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) 04:14:11
2. Felix Grossschartner (Bora-Hansgrohe) same time
3. Andrea Bagioli (Deceuninck-Quick-Step) same time
4. Alex Aranburu (Astana) same time
5. Robert Stannard (Mitchelton-Scott) same time

CLASSIFICATION STANDINGS

General Classification

1. Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) 40:25:15
2. Richard Carapaz (INEOS Grenadiers) same time
3. Dan Martin (Israel Start-Up Nation) +00:25

Points Classification

1. Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) 129
2. Richard Carapaz (INEOS Grenadiers) 83
3. Dan Martin (Israel Start-Up Nation) 82

King of the Mountains

1. Guillaume Martin (Cofidis) 27
2. Sepp Kuss (Jumbo-Visma) 24
3. Richard Carapaz (INEOS Grenadiers) 24

What's next?

The race moves to the mountains on Saturday as the riders make the 170km journey from Villaviciosa to Alto de la Farrapona - a stage containing four category one climbs, including the Colladona mountain pass.