After yesterday's rest day, the riders, but not Saxobank's Andy Schleck and Stuart O'Grady who were thrown off the race by their team for an evening's drinking, were back for the tenth stage from Tarragona to the coastal town of Vilanova i la Geltrú.
Mark Cavendish took the first sprint of the day with Phillippe Gilbert the second before eleven riders broke clear.
The peleton seperated on the final climb of the day but was all back together and chasing down the escapees which had been reduced to eight riders on narrow roads surrounded by trees.
With 12km to go, a second group which contained Javier Moreno (Andalucia-Cajasur), Christophe Le Mevel (FDJ), Biel Kadri (Ag2r-La Mondiale), Romain Zingle (Cofidis), Giampaolo Cheula (Fotton-Servetto), Mauro Finetto (Liquigas-Doimo), Greg Van Avermaet (Omega Pharma-Lotto), Laurens Ten Dam (Rabobank) and Anders Lund (Saxo Bank).were 28 seconds down on the breakaway mounted by Caisse d'Epargne's Imanol Erviti, who won a stage of the Vuelta in 2008, with the peleton at 2.09.
Imanol Erviti, who rode in this year's Tour De France, stayed away and was first home in a time of 4hr, 13 mins and 32 seconds. Romain Zingle was second with Greg Van Avermaet third.
Katusha's Jouquin Rodriquez takes the leaders red jersey from Igor Anton and leads by two seconds.
Tomorrow is the second long stage of the race and is 203.4km long and goes from Vilanova i la Geltrú to Andorra.