Nicolas Roche looks shattered after the summit finish on stage 9 of La Vuelta. Both he and Conor Dunne emptied the tank today.
Nicolas Roche, Conor Dunne battle Vuelta stage 9
Ireland’s Nicolas Roche and Conor Dunne have given it everything at the Vuelta today.
On stage 9, and just before the rest day, Dunne went on the attack. And Nicolas Roche battled hard once again on a testing finish to keep his general classification hopes alive.
The racing finished on the summit of the cat 1 Puig Llorença at the end of 174km.
And when the last survivors of the early 11-man breakaway were swept up, it was Chris Froome who pounced for stage victory.
It was his second win of the season after claiming the Tour de France last month.
Romain Bardet (Ag2r-La Mondiale) sought to made up for his sliding down the general standings and went for a stage win today.
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He made most of the early running on the final climb, along with Richard Carapaz (Movistar) and Enric Mas (QuickStep Floors).
But as the peloton was trimmed to a select group, the efforts of the three attackers came to nothing.
And just inside the final kilometre it was Froome who pulled the trigger.
Alberto Contador (Trek-Segafredo) was on his wheel at the time. And while he tried to hold the race leader, he didn’t have the legs.
It fell to Esteban Chaves (Orica-Scott) to go after Froome. And in doing so he pulled Michael Woods of the embattled Cannondale-Drapac with him.
Chaves would slowly close the gap up to lone leader Froome. But as he did, the Tour de France champion kicked again and the gap would open once more.
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In the end Froome won from Chaves and Woods by 4 and 5 seconds respectively.
And in their wake came the other general classification men; battling up the last part of the climb in the battle for valuable seconds.
Nicolas Roche (BMC Racing) did well in that fight; finishing 9th on the stage and losing 14 seconds to Froome.
That sees him maintain his 3rd place overall going into tomorrow’s rest day.
Earlier in the stage it was the turn of Conor Dunne of Aqua Blue Sport to fly the Irish flag. He went clear in the breakaway inside the first 20km.
With Conor Dunne were: Anthony Turgis (Cofidis), Lluis Mas and Diego Rubio (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) and Ricardo Vilela (Manzana Postobon).
Also present were Markel Irizar (Trek-Segafredo), Marc Soler (Movistar), Marco Haller (Katusha-Alpecin), Bert-Jan Lindeman (LottoNL-Jumbo) and Tobias Ludvigsson (FDJ).
However, with Cannondale-Drapac fighting for its survival it put men on the front of the bunch. And that really curtailed the gap the breakaway got.
It spent most of the stage just over two minutes ahead of the main pack. And when it hit the first climb up the Llorença, with some 40km remaining, the escape group broke up.
Dunne was a casualty of that action. And he would be caught by the peloton right at the top of the climb.
From that point the bunch slowly pegged back the reduced breakaway. Ludvigsson and Soler survived longest out front but were recaptured in the aggressive finale.
Stage 9: Orihuela to Cumbre del Sol (174km)
1 Christopher Froome (GBr) Team Sky 4:07:13
2 Johan Esteban Chaves Rubio (Col) Orica-Scott 0:00:04
3 Michael Woods (Can) Cannondale-Drapac 0:00:05
4 Wilco Kelderman (Ned) Team Sunweb 0:00:08
5 Ilnur Zakarin (Rus) Katusha-Alpecin
6 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Trek-Segafredo 0:00:12
7 David de la Cruz (Spa) Quick-Step Floors
8 Sam Oomen (Ned) Team Sunweb
9 Nicolas Roche (Irl) BMC Racing Team 0:00:14
10 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Bahrain-Merida
163 Conor Dunne (Irl) Aqua Blue Sport 0:20:36
General Classification
1 Christopher Froome (GBr) Team Sky 36:33:16
2 Johan Esteban Chaves Rubio (Col) Orica-Scott 0:00:36
3 Nicolas Roche (Irl) BMC Racing Team 0:01:05
4 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Bahrain-Merida 0:01:17
5 Tejay van Garderen (USA) BMC Racing Team 0:01:27
6 David de la Cruz (Spa) Quick-Step Floors 0:01:30
7 Fabio Aru (Ita) Astana Pro Team 0:01:33
8 Michael Woods (Can) Cannondale-Drapac 0:01:52
9 Adam Yates (GBr) Orica-Scott 0:01:55
10 Ilnur Zakarin (Rus) Katusha-Alpecin 0:02:15
178 Conor Dunne (Irl) Aqua Blue Sport 1:53:43
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