Nicolas Roche spent much of the stage on the front defending the leader's jersey. But his team has lost that lead and its top rider - Richie Porte - has seen his challenge for the overall already ended.
Ireland's Roche now in much better position at Vuelta
Nicolas Roche and Dan Martin both lost time on the opening road stage of the Vuelta on Sunday, though Roche's loss was modest.
Roche finished in 27th place, some 15 seconds down. Dan Martin was further back; finishing in 50th place some 1:15 down on the stage winner Alejandro Valverde (Movistar).
However, the stage was a significant one for both, with their time loss not telling the full story.
Martin’s team had said he was in the race to try for stage wins, adding Fabio Aru was its main man for the overall.
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And Martin's time loss today confirms that prospect. The Irish climber should be given leeway to go on the attack later in the race if he loses more time.
Watching Dan Martin (UAE Team Emirates) opt out of the general classification race and aim for stage victories should be a very exciting prospect.
Top down: Nicolas Roche and BMC on the front. Valverde and Kwiatkowski sprint it out for victory.
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And while Roche lost less time on today’s stage, the big news for him was within his BMC Racing team.
Rohan Dennis had won yesterday’s TT and so held the race lead today.
That saw Roche and his team mates spending a huge chunk of today's stage 2 on the front chasing the early breakaway.
With the final of today’s stage up a climb, Australian Dennis lost time and his leader’s jersey.
And BMC’s team leader Richie Porte was way down the field; his general classification bid already over.
The Australian fell ill with a bug in recent days. And he had already warned his form was not as good as when he crashed out of last month’s Tour de France.
Porte finished today in 148th place, in the gruppetto some 13:31 down. With Porte’s general classification hopes already ended, Roche should be freer to ride for himself.
Indeed, Nicolas Roche is now the best placed BMC rider on the general classification and should be able to ride for the overall with the team's help.
Today’s 163.5km stage from Marbella to Caminito del Rey was much harder than the profile suggested.
After the early breakaway had been caught, the cat 3 climb to the finish settled stage honours.
Laurens De Plus (QuickStep) went for a long range attack on the finishing climb. He jumped after Team Sky had hit the front in a bid to set up Michal Kwiatkowski for victory.
The Pole was one of only two riders to catch and pass De Plus in the final metres. But Valverde was with him and beat him to the line.
It meant the Spanish veteran took the stage from the Polish champion, who took the race lead having been 2nd to Dennis in last night’s TT.
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