Team Sky’s Chris Froome was aggressive in the closing stages but paid for his efforts
Nicolas Roche (Ag2r La Mondiale) has put in another very good ride in the mountains at the Vuelta, emerging close to the head of the field as the race finished atop the Collada de la Gallina climb on today’s 8th stage, a 174.7km run into Andorra.
The Irishman overcame a late mechanical which saw him battle back on through the cars when his chain jammed in his frame before the second category climb, crested at the 158km mark with just 16km remaining, much of that up the final climb to the finish.
While the big favourites traded blows out front in the battle for this year’s overall crown, Roche rode very well up the climb after that problem to limit his loses to 1:02 to the leading trio on the stage of Alejenadro Valverde (Movistar), GC leader Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) and Alberto Contador (Saxo Bank).
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While they finished together – and in that order – Sky’s Chris Froome paid for his attacking riding in the final 1km, losing touch with the leaders on the closing section of the slopes and coming home alone in fourth place some 15 seconds down.
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Roche was 12th on the stage and drops one place from 6th to 7th; 1:24 down on Rodriguez overall.
Result: Stage 8
1 Alejandro Valverde Belmonte (Spa) Movistar 4:06:39
2 Joaquim Rodriguez Oliver (Spa) Katusha
3 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Saxo Bank - Tinkoff Bank
4 Christopher Froome (GBr) Sky 0:00:15
5 Daniel Moreno Fernandez (Spa) Katusha 0:00:23
6 Benat Intxausti Elorriaga (Spa) Movistar 0:00:33
7 Igor Anton (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi
8 Winner Anacona Gomez (Col) Lampre - ISD 0:00:39
9 Robert Gesink (Ned) Rabobank
10 Przemyslaw Niemiec (Pol) Lampre - ISD 0:00:42
11 Andrew Talansky (USA) Garmin - Sharp 0:00:44
12 Nicolas Roche (Irl) AG2R 0:01:02
13 Rinaldo Nocentini (Ita) AG2R
14 Laurens Ten Dam (Ned) Rabobank 0:01:05
15 Eros Capecchi (Ita) Liquigas-Cannondale 0:01:06
General Classification
1 Joaquim Rodriguez Oliver (Spa) Katusha 29:59:35
2 Christopher Froome (GB) Sky 0:00:33
3 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Saxo Bank - Tinkoff Bank 0:00:40
4 Alejandro Valverde Belmonte (Spa) Movistar 0:00:50
5 Robert Gesink (Ned) Rabobank Cycling 0:01:41
6 Daniel Moreno Fernandez (Spa) Katusha 0:01:48
7 Nicolas Roche (Irl) AG2R 0:02:14
8 Igor Anton (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi 0:02:47
9 Laurens Ten Dam (Ned) Rabobank 0:02:58
10 Bauke Mollema (Ned) Rabobank 0:03:07
11 Przemyslaw Niemiec (Pol) Lampre - ISD 0:03:20
12 Eros Capecchi (Ita) Liquigas-Cannondale
13 Tomasz Marczynski (Pol) Vacansoleil 0:03:26
14 Sergio Luis Henao Montoya (Col) Sky 0:03:34
15 Winner Anacona Gomez (Col) Lampre - ISD 0:03:38
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