Chris Froome leads Nicolas Roche on the attack on the Vuelta today
Nicolas Roche was again very much to the fore on the second major stage of this year’s Vuelta a España, going on the attack with Alberto Contador and Chris Froome in the mountains before putting time into his main rivals and bagging 5th on the stage.
The Irishman also moved up the GC from 11th this morning to 8th after today’s stage and is now just 24 seconds down on new race leader Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha).
Roche shone as today’s stage neared the end, going clear with the two pre race favourites on the final climb of the 161km stage from Baracaldo to Estación de Valdezcaray.
With any chance of stage victory already gone because of an early breakaway up the road, Contador (Saxo Bank) decided to go on the attack on the final climb up to the finish to try to distance his GC rivals just as he had tried to do yesterday.
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When Contador and his team mate Daniel Navarro took the race to the rest of the field it was Roche and Team Sky’s Froome who went with them.
When they did not manage to get a substantial gap on the rest of the strongmen’s group, Froome and Contador sat up leaving Roche ahead.
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He was then joined by a handful of riders from the select group and these managed to stay clear to contest the minor placings, with Roche taking 5th some 55 seconds after breakaway survivor Simon Clarke (Orica GreenEdge) outsprinted Tony Martin (Omega Pharma-Quickstep) for the stage win.
Roche managed to finish nine seconds ahead of the main favourites to gain some valuable time towards improving his overall position. The race lead changed hands after GC leader this morning Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) crashed with around 25kms remaining at a point in the race when a number of echelons had formed under the pressure of Team Sky driving at the front.
While he limited his losses to 55 seconds on the group of main favourites he was irate at the finish and accused Sky of taking advantage of his misfortune.
Stage 4: Result
1 Simon Clarke (Aus) Orica - GreenEdge 4:30:26
2 Tony Martin (Ger) Omega Pharma-Quickstep 0:00:02
3 Assan Bazayev (Kaz) Astana Pro Team 0:00:22
4 Marcos Garcia (Spa) Caja Rural 0:00:55
5 Nicolas Roche (Irl) AG2R La Mondiale
6 Linus Gerdemann (Ger) Radioshack-Nissan 0:00:57
7 Laurens Ten Dam (Ned) Rabobank Cycling Team
8 Andrey Zeits (Kaz) Astana Pro Team 0:01:01
9 Bauke Mollema (Ned) Rabobank Cycling Team 0:01:04
10 Jan Bakelants (Bel) Radioshack-Nissan
11 Przemyslaw Niemiec (Pol) Lampre - ISD
12 Tomasz Marczynski (Pol) Vacansoleil-Dcm Pro Cycling Team
13 Steve Morabito (Swi) BMC Racing Team
14 Andre Fernando S. Martins Cardoso (Por) Caja Rural
15 Christopher Froome (GBr) Sky Procycling
General Classification
1 Joaquim Rodriguez Oliver (Spa) Katusha Team 13:18:45
2 Christopher Froome (GBr) Sky Procycling 0:00:01
3 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Saxo Bank - Tinkoff Bank 0:00:05
4 Bauke Mollema (Ned) Rabobank Cycling Team 0:00:09
5 Robert Gesink (Ned) Rabobank Cycling Team
6 Rigoberto Uran Uran (Col) Sky Procycling 0:00:11
7 Daniel Moreno Fernandez (Spa) Katusha Team 0:00:14
8 Nicolas Roche (Irl) AG2R La Mondiale 0:00:24
9 Alejandro Valverde Belmonte (Spa) Movistar Team 0:00:36
10 Laurens Ten Dam (Ned) Rabobank Cycling Team 0:00:46
11 Juan Jose Cobo Acebo (Spa) Movistar Team 0:00:47
12 Sergio Luis Henao Montoya (Col) Sky Procycling 0:00:52
13 Winner Anacona Gomez (Col) Lampre - ISD 0:00:53
14 Steve Morabito (Swi) BMC Racing Team
15 Tomasz Marczynski (Pol) Vacansoleil-Dcm Pro Cycling Team 0:00:55
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