Jumbo's American rider Sepp Kuss did enough Tuesday to retain the Vuelta a España overall lead on a grueling 25.8-kilometer Stage 10 individual time trial won by Italy's Filippo Ganna.

Ganna of Ineos completed the course around the city of Valladolid in 27 minutes, 39 seconds, though exhausted mountain specialist Kuss still leads the overall standings by 26 seconds from Spaniard Marc Soler.

Belgian Quick-Step rider and defending champion Remco Evenepoel raced in his time trial world champion rainbow jersey and was 16 seconds slower than Ganna, finishing second on the day.

He is now third overall at 1 minute, 9 seconds. He crucially extended his lead over Primoz Roglic to 27 seconds and Jonas Vingegaard by over a minute.

"It's great to be here on such a lovely day and win another stage after I also won at the Giro," Ganna said. "Let's see what else we can do. I'm here to help 'G' (Geraint Thomas)."

Evenepoel beat Ganna to the world title in Glasgow last month but explained he suffered a blip here.

"I think it's pretty good, knowing that I didn't have the best TT legs today," said the Belgian Evenepoel. "We have to be happy with the general classification gaps I took today and coming quite closer to Sepp, who actually did a super good TT. So, hats off to him."

Roglic is in fourth and was all smiles as he warmed down after the race, while French rookie Lenny Martinez remains fifth and is expected to do well in the mountains ahead.

Wednesday's Stage 11 from Lerma to La Laguna Negra ends with what should be a hotly contested 6.5-kilometer climb to the finish.