Dan Martin and Nicolas Roche lost time at the Vuelta on a day when Benjamin King won his second stage of the 2018 edition.
Nicolas Roche and Dan Martin lost time on yesterday’s big summit finish at La Vuelta as Ben King won his second stage for Dimension Data.
Simon Yates of Mitchelton-Scott has taken over the race lead. However, while he distanced some of the general classification men he only did so after others got away from him on the final climb.
Dan Martin had won the stage on La Covatilla when the Vuelta last visited in 2011. But he could not repeat that yesterday.
Not only did King win from a breakaway after 200.9km; Martin ceded time to those chasing the last of the breakaway survivors. He would cross the line in 50th place at 8:27.
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He is not targeting the general classification meaning the time lost is of no consequence.
However, the UAE Team Emirate’s rider’s plans to ride himself into the race are clearly taking some time to take shape.
Top down: Deposed race leader Molard stops to fix his shoe. Lopez leads home Quintana and Kelderman; the three strongest on the final climb. New leader Yates.
Dan Martin's team’s man for the general standings on the race, Fabio Aru, faltered yesterday.
An unconvincing finale from the Italia saw him finish 16th. Furthermore, he lost between 20 and 40 seconds to the men vying for the overall.
However, he moved up two places to 11th on GC. And while losing time to the other heavy hitters he is still only 1:08 off the race lead.
Of more concern than the cumulative time he has ceded thus far was his going backwards near the finish.
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He did so when many others were going forwards in the fight for seconds on the upper slopes of the climb.
Nicolas Roche began yesterday's stage in 25th place overall, some 5:07 down.
It would not have been impossible to edge back into the top 10, perhaps with a breakaway ride at some point. But now he is much further back.
He lost 12:30 yesterday and finished in 68th place. That now leaves him in 35th at 13:57.
However, both Irish riders have won stages on this race before and could do so again this year. Both are hoping to get better as the race progresses.
Dan Martin is still coming back after a long lay-off since his 8th place finish in the Tour de France.
And Nicolas Roche says he is still a little short of race days having abandoned the Giro and been forced out of the Tour of Poland with illness.
On yesterday’s stage 9 King attacked from the breakaway before the final climb and held on. Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo) set out after him.
And while it looked like Mollema may catch King, the American leader hung on for a second stage victory. He had also triumphed on last Tuesday’s stage 4, also from a breakaway.
Mollema was forced to settle for 2nd place, the same position as 2011 when Dan Martin beat him to the line.
Aside from King, the winners yesterday were Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana), Wilco Kelderman (Team Sunweb) and Nairo Quintana (Movistar).
They filled places 4th to 6th after moving clear of the select group in a late move initiated by Kelderman.
Rigoberto Uran (Education First-Drapac) and Ion Izagirre (Bahrain-Merida) were with them and finished just seconds later.
Behind that group, Yates attacked the other general classification men after race leader Rudy Molard (Groupama-FDJ) had been distanced.
Crucially, Yates put 15 seconds into Alejandro Valverde (Movistar), who was 2nd overall at the start of the stage. And that saw Yates take the race lead by one second from Valverde.
Quintana, who looked strong yesterday, is now 3rd at 14 seconds. Meanwhile, Molard slips from the race lead to 17th overall at 2:43.
Today is a rest day with the action resuming on Tuesday. The riders face 177km to Bermillo de Sayago with just one late cat 3 climb.
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