Nicolas Roche aggressive in hunt for Tour stage win; Dan Martin misses big guns split

Nicolas Roche and team mate Roman Kreuziger before the off today; Roche was very aggressive in the race for the stage win into Gap while Kreuziger was strong in a select group that ripped the peloton apart as he and team leader Alberto Contador tried to put yellow jersey Chris Froome and second on GC Bauke Mollema under pressure.

By Gavin McLoughlin

A valiant Nicolas Roche was part of a 26-man breakaway that produced the day’s winner, while Dan Martin moved into the top ten on general classification on stage 16 of the Tour de France today, Tuesday.

Roche got away with the sizaable contingent about 30 kilometres into the stage, but the Irishman was ultimately unable to claim a victory that went to Rui Costa (Movistar).

The winning move from the breakaway came on the final climb of the day – the second-category Col de Manse which peaked 12 kilometres from the finish line. The Portuguese Costa was able to distance his breakaway companions and set off up the slope alone after Roche had looked strong in following the slightly earlier attacks.

Roche was then prominent among those who desperately tried to bridge the gap to the Movistar man but Costa was too strong and ultimately claimed an impressive stage win.

Roche arrived at the finish in 16th place on the day; 1:26 behind Costa. It was a good effort from the Saxo-Tinkoff rider, but there was no cigar on the first day of an incredibly arduous-looking final week.

Stage 9’s winner and Garmin-Sharp leader Martin moves into 10th place overall after finishing 39 seconds ahead of Michal Kwiatkowski (Omega Pharma-Quick Step). Kwiatkowski began the day in 10th – 30 seconds ahead of Martin – but now drops one place behind the Irishman on the leader board.

Martin was among those distanced by am eight-man select group of overall contenders on the day’s final climb after the Katusha team produced a surprising attack at the head of the peloton over 1o minutes behind the breakaway on the lower slopes of the ascent.

The Irishman lost one minute on the race-lead of Chris Froome and that eight-man group he was in, but was already well behind the Briton and so this time loss to him means little in the overall scheme of things.

However, in that group with Froome were a number of riders who Martin is effectively now racing against for the highest place possible in the top 10 at the end of this week in Paris. They included Nairo Quintana (Movistar), Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha), Bauke Mollema (Belkin), Roman Kreuziger (Saxo-Tinkoff), and Alberto Contador (Saxo-Tinkoff).

With the parcours of tomorrow’s 32 kilometre individual time-trial looking better suited to Martin’s characteristics than the previous race against the clock, the Irishman will hopefully be able to defend or even improve on his overall position on stage 17.

Today the peloton faced a hilly 168 kilometre ride from Vaison-la-Romaine to Gap. Pre-stage analysis suggested that today would provide the last good chance for a breakaway to succeed, and so the early part of the day was action-packed.

Nicolas Roche was among 20 men that rode away in the first move, and steadily the group swelled as rider after rider rode across the gap. Martin was one of those who joined later, but the escape was not allowed to establish a big lead and eventually the peloton reeled back in all save Andreas Klöden (Radioshack-Leopard) and Adam Hansen (Lotto-Belisol).

The counter-attacks came quickly and a sizeable group including Roche was able to get away again. This time the move stuck, with Klöden, Hansen, Thomas Voeckler (Europcar) and Philippe Gilbert (BMC) among Roche’s 25 companions.

Sky settled into the pace-setting on the front of the peloton but as the day progressed it slowly became clear that the breakaway would succeed.

The final Col de Manse looked like being the staging post for the crucial attack of the day, but the first attack out front came well beforehand. With 35 kilometres remaining, Blel Kadri (AG2R-La Mondiale) and Jean-Marc Marino (Sojasun) separated themselves from the rest of the escapees, but the French duo never pulled out much of an advantage.

Onto the slope and Adam Hansen (Lotto-Belisol) bridged the short gap to the two tired leaders, and the Australian was soon able to leave both trailing in his wake.Roche led the charge behind with Jérome Coppel (Cofidis). But Coppel had the better climbing legs and the Frenchman was able to catch and distance Hansen, with Roche unable to follow.

Coppel was then caught in turn by Costa, the combination of French and Portuguese looking ominously strong. Roche wasn’t far behind and strove to make contact with the duo, but then Costa put in another dig and rode away from everyone.

Back to the peloton and Katusha came from nowhere to turn up the heat on the final climb, with the eventual result being a split that saw Martin left behind the likes of Froome, Mollema and Contador in an eight man group that rode clear of the smashed peloton on the final climb.

Martin was just about caught; taking his placed in the next group on the road which pursued the group of Froome at the way to the finish in the race for the overall as the stage win had already been well settled up the road.

Contador tried a number of little attacks from the select group, but Froome was untroubled until both he and the Spaniard misjudged a corner on the descent of the Col de Manse. The race-leader rode onto a grass verge but managed to avoid what could have been a major calamity.

Briefly distanced from the rest of their group, Froome and Contador eventually re-established contact and crossed the line safely back in the eight-man select group some 11:08 after the triumphant Costa.

Martin arrived a minute later, with Laurens Ten Dam (Belkin) and Cadel Evans (BMC) among his companions.

Tomorrow is a 32 kilometre individual time-trial from Embrun to Chorges. Two second-category climbs will be tackled, so Martin will be hoping to show well in his natural terrain. He is just over two minutes over 7th place overall and just over five minutes off 2nd place; though Froome’s lead of 9:28 with a TT and more climbing to come looks set to get bigger.

Roche clearly will have no team duties on tomorrow’s test, but after an impressive effort in last week’s time-trial it will also be interesting to see how he goes tomorrow, before the first of three consecutive days in the high mountains.

@gavmcloughlin