Having said a wave of emotion washed over him when he put on La Vuelta race leader's red jersey after Sunday's stage 2, Nicolas Roche has expressed his desire to fight to keep the race lead.
He carries the red jersey into tomorrow's stage 5; his third day at the top of the standings.
The Team Sunweb man has looked very composed over the past two days and while today's and yesterday's stage came down to bunch sprints, there were tricky late climbs.
Tomorrow’s stage 5 takes
the riders some 170.7km from L’Eliana to Observatorio Astrofísico de
Javalambre .
There’s an early cat 2 climb and a cat 3
just after the halfway point followed by a sting in the tail; the 11.7km climb
to the summit finish, averaging 7.5 per cent.
Much will depend on how the climb is
raced but Roche looked very strong on the ascent late in the day on stage 2,
and on the undulating unclassified terrain after that hill.
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He has said that whatever happens
tomorrow he will give his all to try and hold onto the race leader’s jersey.
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“I want to give it my best shot; it is
one of those short and steep climbs that suit me,” he said of the last climb tomorrow.
“I’m going to have to adapt to whatever
comes, going as fast as I can up the finish climb.
“It’s going to be a hard day but I guarantee I won’t give up. I’ve
not done a climb like tomorrow’s in a long time so we’ll see how it goes.
“My condition is good but I’m not at the level of Quintana and Uran.
I have been in better condition coming into the Vuelta before.
“But then I’ve faded in the third week so hopefully I will be able to grow stronger over the next few days and the higher mountains in the third week."
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