Nicolas Roche battles hard on epic mountain stage, set for career best Grand Tour finish

Nicolas Roche again battled hard today to hold his place in 5th overall at the Vuelta, which will be his best finish on a Grand Tour barring disaster on tomorrow's final stage.

By Gavin McLoughlin

A badly-suffering Nicolas Roche lost time to his rivals on the barbaric Alto de l’Angliru, but the Irishman was able to keep hold of that precious fifth overall place on the penultimate stage of the Vuelta a Espana today, Saturday.

Roche was dropped from the favourites’ group about 6.5 kilometres from the finish line atop the brutal mountain, but with loyal domestique Rafal Majka for company he was able to limit his losses by enough to hold sixth-placed Domenico Pozzovivo (AG2R-La Mondiale) at bay.

Majka and Roche arrived home in 18^th and 19^th place respectively, both 3:42 behind breakaway stage winner Kenny Elissonde (Française des Jeux). The Saxo-Tinkoff leader surrendered 1:22 to Pozzovivo, but stays fifth overall by a margin of 49 seconds.

Failing illness or injury on tomorrow’s largely-ceremonial final stage, the Irishman will achieve his pre-race goal of a top-five finish.

It will be his best-ever overall result at a Grand Tour, and he will emerge from this race with his stock in the cycling world greatly increased.

The beginning of this 142-kilometre ride from Avilés to the summit of the hors-categorie Angliru saw a large group of about 30 men ride up the road.

The second climb of the day was the second-category Alto de Tenebredo, and just before the escapees hit this slope a quintet of Vasil Kiryienka (Sky), David Arroyo (Movistar), Andriy Grivko (Astana), Antonio Piedra (Caja Rural) and Nicolas Edet (Cofidis) was able to slip away.

Piedra was dropped on the Tenebredo and the rest of the leaders were hauled back by the chase group with 42 kilometres remaining. Back in the bunch, Euskaltel-Euskadi and Katusha were setting the tempo.

The penultimate climb was the first-category Alto del Cordal, and when the breakaway hit this slope Paolo Tiralongo mounted an attack. Soon the Italian would be joined by Kenny Elissonde (Française des Jeux) and together they faced the monstrous Angliru.

Tiralongo’s move seemed to foreshadow an attack from Vincenzo Nibali and you wondered if the Astana leader would use his wonderful descending skills to put Horner in difficulty on the drop to the foot of the final mountain.

But the Italian held fire on the descent and instead it was Euskaltel-Euskadi’s Samuel Sanchez who plunged down fastest. Roche wasn’t far behind, and up the road the lead duo started the Angliru with a lead of 4:50.

Joaquin Rodriguez (Katusha) took an imperious stage victory yesterday, and when the overall contenders came to the climb the Spaniard looked ultra-determined to make it a double.

His top lieutenant Daniel Moreno set the tempo until Nibali finally made his inevitable move with about 6.8 kilometres to go.

Horner did not follow the Italian’s attack but the pace had crept up in the favourites’ group and quickly this put Roche was in trouble. Rafal Majka tried to pace the Irishman back up but the Saxo-Tinkoff duo could make no progress.

Still the worst part of the climb was to come and Pozzovivo was riding away from Roche with well over 6 kilometres left and it looked bad for the Irishman.

Ahead, Horner, Valverde and Rodriguez were the strongest of Nibali’s rivals and unsurprisingly the Spanish duo were making the American do all the work. Soon Valverde would be dropped as Horner’s steady pace slowly reeled his nemesis in.

The Radioshack leader caught the Italian with 5.5 kilometres left and quickly threw in a little dig to measure his rival’s condition. The Astana leader responded with a brief attack of his own, but then there was a ceasefire, as first Tiralongo and then Jakob Fuglsang dropped back from the breakaway to help their leader Nibali.

The slowing of the pace allowed Valverde to re-establish contact, while at the head of the race a lone, brave Elissonde was wrestling his bike up the infernal slope.

The road continued to ramp mercilessly upward and it was a spectacle of epic proportions as the high altitude enveloped the riders in cloud.

Nibali’s teammates had faded and now the Italian tried to lose Horner again. Surge followed surge from the Astana leader, and a slow-to-follow Horner looked to be suffering.

Yet they were still locked together under the 2-kilometre banner and now the Italian was paying for his efforts. Horner managed to rid himself of Nibali with about 1800 metres left, and now the question was whether he would catch Elissonde who was still working hard out front.

Ultimately the 22-year-old Française des Jeux man managed to beat the 41-year-old American to the line by 26 seconds, sealing another win for France at what has been a hugely-encouraging race for that nation.

Horner then crossed to wrap up the red jersey, while Roche arrived over 3 minutes later with his place on general classification still intact.

@gavmcloughlin