Nicolas Roche was among just 30 survivors in the group after a testing finale to stage 7 at the Vuelta. Tony Gallopin attacked solo and just held them off to win.
After saying he would continue to fight on and was hopeful of coming around, Nicolas Roche has put in a solid ride on stage 7 at the Vuelta.
Roche was in the front group containing most of the general classification men after 185.7km from Puerto Lumbreras to Pozo Alcón.
With a cat 3 climb close to the finish and the road climbing up gradually for much of the final 20km, the peloton was trimmed right back to just 30 riders.
Nicolas Roche (BMC Racing) was among them; coming over the line in 21st place. The stage was won by Tony Gallopin (AG2R-La Mondiale).
Advertisement
After the last of the early escapees was caught yesterday, Luis Mas Bonet (Caja Rural) attacked with about 10km remaining.
His move, on the descent of the final climb of the day, got the finale underway. When his attack was not successful, Jesus Herrada (Cofidis) jumped.
However, it was Gallopin’s burst in pursuit of the lone leader that won the day. He would catch Herrada with less than 3km to go.
And while the group was just behind he pressed on alone and hung on out front to win by five seconds.
Related News
Peter Sagan (Bora-hansgrohe) took the sprint for 2nd from Alejandro Valverde; the Movistar man’s presence in the sprint an indication of how hard the run-in was.
While the pace and terrain in the final kilometres split the field, crashes didn’t help. And one of those who come off was former race leader Michal Kwiatkowski.
The Team Sky man came down on the descent of the final climb, a cat 3. He remounted and fought well to minimise his time loss to just 30 seconds.
He slipped four places overall to 6th, with Valverde now 2nd some 47 seconds down on Rudy Molard; the Groupama-FDJ rider retaining his race lead.
Nicolas Roche (BMC Racing) is 24th overall, 5:07 down. Dan Martin (UAE Team Emirates) lost time again yesterday.
He finished in 61st place on the stage some 4:27 down. He is 64th overall some 24:58 off the race lead. But he is not riding this race for general classification.
With Roche showing signs of coming around, as he felt he would, and Martin now no threat overall; it should be very interesting to see if they can go on the attack a little later in the race.
Sunday’s stage 9 is a HC summit finish to La Covatilla. Martin won the stage on the same climb in 2011.
Back then it also featured on the ninth stage. Furthermore, he won stage 9 in the Tour de France in 2013.
Topics
