Nicolas Roche is one of three Irishmen with a genuine chance on the summit finish that will decide Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana.
With the decisive summit finish looming at Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana, Dan Martin (QuickStep) and Nicolas Roche (BMC Racing) are well placed but its Nairo Quintana (Movistar) that the rest of the field will fear most.
Roche’s team mate Greg Van Avermaet retains the race lead going into tomorrow’s summit finish stage after today’s stage 4 was won by Magnus Cort (Orica-Scott).
He jumped early to surprise the sprinters in the dash to the line in Riba-Roja de Turia; with the stage not impacting the general classification standings in any real way.
Roche is very well placed if he has his climbing legs on this early in the season; in 5th on general classification and 44 seconds on his team mate.
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Martin is 10th overall at 56 seconds, just two seconds behind on Quintana.
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The Irishman had the upper hand on the Colombian after the stage 1 TTT. However, Quintana showed his craft and alertness by clipping away in an escape on stage 2 and took time back on Martin.
Of the other Irishmen in the race, Philip Deignan is 13th, 1:05 off the yellow jersey but crucially just 21 seconds down on Roche, 9 on Martin and 11 on Quintana.
On their day, any of the Irishmen could win the race outright tomorrow or at the very least get onto the final podium, though Deignan and Roche may be hampered by team duties.
All will be revealed on the cat 1 summit finish to Llucena at the end of 180km tomorrow, see profile below. And with Sunday’s stage looking like one of for the sprinters tomorrow is the key day.
Stage 3: Canals - Riba-Roja de Túria (161km)
1 Magnus Cort Nielsen (Den) Orica-Scott 3:49:02
2 Nacer Bouhanni (Fra) Cofidis, Solutions Credits
3 Bryan Coquard (Fra) Direct Energie
4 Yves Lampaert (Bel) Quick-Step Floors
5 Enrique Sanz Unzue (Spa) Spain
6 Samuel Caldeira (Por) W52/FC Porto
7 Oliver Naesen (Bel) AG2R La Mondiale
8 Zakkari Dempster (Aus) Israel Cycling Academy
9 Greg Van Avermaet (Bel) BMC Racing Team
10 Viacheslav Kuznetsov (Rus) Katusha-Alpecin
65 Philip Deignan (Irl) Team Sky
68 Ryan Mullen (Irl) Cannondale-Drapac
78 Daniel Martin (Irl) Quick-Step Floors
80 Nicolas Roche (Irl) BMC Racing Team
General Classification
1 Greg Van Avermaet (Bel) BMC Racing Team 9:17:13
2 Ben Hermans (Bel) BMC Racing Team
3 Manuel Senni (Ita) BMC Racing Team 0:00:07
4 David Lopez (Spa) Team Sky 0:00:28
5 Nicolas Roche (Irl) BMC Racing Team 0:00:44
6 David De La Cruz (Spa) Quick-Step Floors 0:00:48
7 Zdenek Stybar (Cze) Quick-Step Floors 0:00:49
8 Philippe Gilbert (Bel) Quick-Step Floors
9 Nairo Quintana (Col) Movistar Team 0:00:54
10 Daniel Martin (Irl) Quick-Step Floors 0:00:56
11 Michal Kwiatkowski (Pol) Team Sky 0:00:58
12 Wout Poels (Ned) Team Sky
13 Philip Deignan (Irl) Team Sky 0:01:05
14 Dayer Quintana (Col) Movistar Team 0:01:09
15 Andrey Amador (CRc) Movistar Team
16 Jesus Herrada (Spa) Movistar Team
17 Jonathan Castroviejo (Spa) Movistar Team
18 Michele Scarponi (Ita) Astana Pro Team 0:01:15
19 Jakob Fuglsang (Den) Astana Pro Team 0:01:23
20 Pello Bilbao (Spa) Astana Pro Team
117 Ryan Mullen (Irl) Cannondale-Drapac 0:13:45
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