Nicolas Roche sprints home for 3rd place on stage 13 of the Vuelta after going on the attack (Photo: Sirotti)
Just one day after his team said its riders would have more freedom to chase stage wins following the exit of leader Chris Froome, Nicolas Roche has been on the attack.
The Team Sky man pulled clear in the large winning breakaway on stage 13, which took the riders 178km from Catalayud to Tarazone.
With only three medium climbs it always looked like a day for a breakaway or some of the sprinters.
And with Froome out of the race with a fractured foot, Roche didn’t need a second invitation to go up the road and ride for himself for once.
With around 40km completed, the first section of what would prove to be the winning escape got clear of the bunch on the third-category Alto Collado de Oseja after a large group of between 45 and 50 riders had earlier been clear.
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In that move were Nelson Oliveira and Rubén Plaza (Lampre-Merida), Yukiya Arashiro (Europcar), Alessandro De Marchi (BMC), Plaza, Mickael Cherel (Ag2r-La Mondiale), Jerome Coppel (IAM Cycling) and Cameron Meyer (Orica-GreenEdge).
On the first-category climb of the Alto de Beratón a chase group caught the leaders, leaving 24 up front.
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In that chasing group were Sergio Henao and Roche (Team Sky), Rinaldo Nocentini (Ag2r-La Mondiale), David Arroyo (Caja Rural), Yohan Bagot and Julien Simon (Cofidis), Niki Terpstra y Gianluca Brambilla (Etixx-Quick Step), Kenny Elissonde y Kevin Reza (FDJ), Valerio Conti (Lampre-Merida), Maxime Monfort (Lotto-Soudal), José Joaquín Rojas (Movistar), Stephen Cummings (MTN-Qhubeka), Romain Sicard (Europcar) and Pawel Poljanski (Tinkoff-Saxo).
They would have 4:48 on the bunch by the finish and though Roche looked very strong when the attacking the breakaway started inside the last hour of racing, it was Lampre-Merida’s Oliveira who put in the move of the day.
He was alone for the final 20km and won by exactly one minute from the rest of the breakaway, with Julien Simon (Cofidis) leading them home for 2nd from Roche in 3rd place. He moved from 22nd overall to 16th, some 9:38 down on race leader Fabio Aru (Astana).
Stage 13: Catalayud to Tarazone (178km)
1 Nelson Oliveira (Por) Lampre-Merida 4:14:01
2 Julien Simon (Fra) Cofidis, Solutions Credits 0:01:00
3 Nicolas Roche (Irl) Team Sky
4 Sylvain Chavanel (Fra) IAM Cycling
5 Jose Joaquin Rojas (Spa) Movistar Team
6 Rinaldo Nocentini (Ita) AG2R La Mondiale
7 Kévin Reza (Fra) FDJ.fr
8 Mikael Cherel (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale
9 Cameron Meyer (Aus) Orica GreenEdge
10 Maxime Monfort (Bel) Lotto Soudal
General Classification
1 Fabio Aru (Ita) Astana Pro Team 51:33:19
2 Joaquim Rodriguez (Spa) Team Katusha 0:00:27
3 Tom Dumoulin (Ned) Team Giant-Alpecin 0:00:30
4 Rafal Majka (Pol) Tinkoff-Saxo 0:01:28
5 Esteban Chaves (Col) Orica GreenEdge 0:01:29
6 Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar Team 0:01:52
7 Daniel Moreno Fernandez (Spa) Team Katusha 0:01:54
8 Mikel Nieve (Spa) Team Sky 0:01:58
9 Gianluca Brambilla (Ita) Etixx - Quick-Step 0:02:51
10 Romain Sicard (Fra) Team Europcar
16 Nicolas Roche (Irl) Team Sky 0:09:38
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