The lead group before it blew apart in today’s closing stages; Roche is down the group
Nicolas Roche has again climbed very well at the Vuelta a España on what was a relatively short but brutal stage 14, coming home 10th and maintaining his seventh place in the overall standings.
On the steep first category slopes up to the summit finish at Puerto de Ancares after 149.2km, it was again the four big guns who slogged it out up front, putting in some great attacking riding.
While Roche lost his place in a lead group of around 15 riders when the attacking started inside the last 5kms, he was far from alone in that and rode very well up the climb to limit his losses to 1:16 on stage winner and overall leader Joaquim Rodriguez (Kathusha).
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With the early breakaway absorbed before the serious jumping started, some attacks from the group of main favourites containing Roche saw Rodriguez pull clear with Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) and Alberto Contador (Saxo Bank-Tinkoff Bank), with Rodriguez’s team mate Daniel Moreno riding out of his socks to tap out a blistering tempo at the front of that small group.
Just behind them on the road between the 3km and 2km to go markers was a group containing Sky team leader Chris Froome, who was being paced by team mate and Olympic silver medallist Rigoberto Uran with Roche and a number of others for company.
The Irishman was clearly under pressure but held his place very well.
Just when it looked like Uran was going to tow the chasers back up to the four leaders, Contador put in a massive attack at the 1.9km mark that for a while looked as if it may bring him the stage win and race leader’s red jersey.
However, Moreno continued to tap out a good tempo for Rodriguez, with Valverde in tow and the gap to Contador did not reach unmanageable proportions.
Behind, the Froome group containing Roche was still being towed by Uran and with 1.2km to go Froome managed to make contact with Moreno, Rodriguez and Valverde; while Contador was still out front alone.
However, the big push by the Briton to get back on terms saw Roche fall off the pace and from that point on it was left to the Irishman to bury himself and limit the damage as much as he could.
The moment Froome made contact with the men ahead of him he attacked. However, Rodriguez and Valverde reacted, catching the Sky man very quickly before instantly dropping him.
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Rodriguez then upped the pressure again and got rid of Valverde, before catching Contador in the closing 500 metres. He then put in a savage gallop to the line to take the stage win by five seconds from Contador.
Some 1:17 would elapse before Roche came over the line in 10th place.
In the battle for GC, Roche started this morning with Robert Gesink (Rabobank) and Moreno between him and the big four favourites for the overall.
The good news for Roche was that Gesink seemed to have a difficult time up the final climb, coming home in 14th place and losing 39 seconds to the Irishman. However, despite all his work for the race leader, Moreno hung on very well to get a good result of his own, taking 4th on the stage and gaining 42 seconds on Roche.
Garmin-Sharp’s team leader Andrew Talansky is also a threat to Roche on GC and he put in a very good ride today to take 33 seconds out of Roche as he bagged 6th on the stage. He is now within just 22 seconds of the Irishman’s 7th place overall.
In recent days Roche has expressed his slight concern that he may have done too much on the opening 10 days of this race. However, on the basis of what was another very good battling ride today, those fears have not come to fruition.
There is still a very difficult week left with plenty of climbing before the race ends next Sunday in Madrid, though two weeks in Roche is thus far having one of the races of his life.
Result: Stage 14
1 Joaquim Rodriguez Oliver (Spa) Katusha Team 4:10:28
2 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Saxo Bank - Tinkoff Bank 0:00:05
3 Alejandro Valverde Belmonte (Spa) Movistar Team 0:00:13
4 Daniel Moreno Fernandez (Spa) Katusha Team 0:00:35
5 Christopher Froome (GBr) Sky Procycling 0:00:38
6 Andrew Talansky (USA) Garmin - Sharp 0:00:44
7 Igor Anton (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi 0:00:56
8 Laurens Ten Dam (Ned) Rabobank Cycling Team 0:01:04
9 Tomasz Marczynski (Pol) Vacansoleil-Dcm Pro Cycling Team 0:01:13
10 Nicolas Roche (Irl) AG2R La Mondiale 0:01:17
11 Gorka Verdugo Marcotegui (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi
12 Przemyslaw Niemiec (Pol) Lampre - ISD 0:01:26
13 Rafal Majka (Pol) Saxo Bank - Tinkoff Bank 0:01:51
14 Robert Gesink (Ned) Rabobank Cycling Team 0:01:56
15 Bart De Clercq (Bel) Lotto Belisol Team
General Classification
1 Joaquim Rodriguez Oliver (Spa) Katusha Team 53:06:33
2 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Saxo Bank - Tinkoff Bank 0:00:22
3 Christopher Froome (GBr) Sky Procycling 0:01:41
4 Alejandro Valverde Belmonte (Spa) Movistar Team
5 Daniel Moreno Fernandez (Spa) Katusha Team 0:04:16
6 Robert Gesink (Ned) Rabobank Cycling Team 0:05:07
7 Nicolas Roche (Irl) AG2R La Mondiale 0:05:51
8 Andrew Talansky (USA) Garmin - Sharp 0:06:13
9 Laurens Ten Dam (Ned) Rabobank Cycling Team 0:06:34
10 Igor Anton (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi 0:07:16
11 Tomasz Marczynski (Pol) Vacansoleil-Dcm Pro Cycling Team 0:08:26
12 Przemyslaw Niemiec (Pol) Lampre - ISD 0:08:48
13 Eros Capecchi (Ita) Liquigas-Cannondale 0:09:18
14 Maxime Monfort (Bel) Radioshack-Nissan 0:09:26
15 Bauke Mollema (Ned) Rabobank Cycling Team 0:09:32
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