Nicolas Roche is happy with his stage win and his lead in the points, mountains and combined classifications but he says this Vuelta is only starting and he is looking for much more over the next three weeks (Photo: Paddy Sweeney - www.velopeloton.com)
By Gerard Cromwell
Having taken a dream stage victory on stage two of the Vuelta a Espana on Sunday, Nicolas Roche is currently in third place overall going into today’s fourth stage.
At 14 seconds behind race leader Chris Horner of Radioshack, Roche is also leading three of the Vuelta’s four classifications and has been adding to his ever growing wardrobe with visits to the podium for the past two days.
While the leader’s jersey at the Vuelta is red instead of the usual yellow, Roche will wear the green jersey of points leader for the second time today. He also officially owns the blue and white polka dot jersey of King of the Mountains and the white jersey for best rider in the combined classification but these will be worn by the riders in second place in each of those competitions.
With the Vuelta peloton earning a respite from the high mountains for a the next few stages Roche is expecting to lose the green jersey to one of the sprinters but is hoping to hold onto one of the others until the end of the week if possible.
“It’s crazy, my first visit to a Grand Tour podium for a classification jersey and I end up with three of them,” he laughed yesterday.
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“It would be nice to hold onto one of them for a few more days but I’m not going to be contesting the bunch sprints or the intermediate sprints so I think the sprinters will probably take the green jersey in the next day or two. But maybe I can hold onto one of the other ones for a while longer. I really don’t know. It all depends on how the race pans out each day.”
Despite having already taken a stage win and garnered a few extra items of clothing, Roche is determined not to rest on his laurels and hopes to continue to figure in the battle for the overall classification as the Vuelta heads towards its conclusion in Madrid three Sundays from now.
“It’s been a good start to the Vuelta for me but I’d be mad to just think, ‘Oh I’ve won a stage, I can relax now and take it easy’. Anyone that knows me knows that’s not my thing at all.”
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“I’ve trained hard for this Vuelta, I’m feeling good at the moment and hopefully I can continue to do well over the next couple of weeks. I’d like to be in a high position when we reach Madrid.”
“Obviously, if things don’t go to plan, then I can look back and say well at least I have a Vuelta stage win to my name now, but until then I’ll be fighting all the way to the end.”
