Ireland's Nicolas Roche steadied himself today ahead of the Vuelta stage 5 fireworks he believes will explode tomorrow.
Ireland's Nicolas Roche poised for Vuelta stage 5
Nicolas Roche said he used today’s stage 4 of the Vuelta to recover a little ahead of what he believes will be a testing day tomorrow.
Today’s 198.2km trek from Escaldes-Engordany to Tarragona came down to a bunch sprint.
And it was QuickStep, winners of stage 2 and runner up yesterday, who took victory; this time with Matteo Trentin.
The Italian sprinted home after 4¾ hours in the saddle to edge out Juan José Lobato (LottoNL-Jumbo) and Tom Van Asbroeck (Cannondale-Drapac).
Nicolas Roche was in the main field, in 37th place, and retains his 3rd place overall. He is still just two seconds off race leader Chris Froome (Team Sky).
Today a four-man escape animated the flat stage. Stéphane Rossetto (Cofidis), Juan Felipe Osorio (Manzana Postobon) and Diego Rubio and Nicholas Schulz (both Caja Rural) opened a gap of over seven minutes.
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On the cat 3 Alto de Belltall with 75km remaining Rossetto and Rubio dropped the other two.
And while the stronger duo would persist out front for a long time, they would be caught with some 8km remaining.
Their recapture paved the way for the bunch sprint that Trentin won. Best of the Aqua Blue Sport riders was Adam Blythe in 15th place.
Nicolas Roche said he enjoyed a calm day but expected to be tested more tomorrow. A cat 3 climb at the finish should split the race up.
“I think after the first few days, it was important to, as strange as it sounds, recover a little bit," he said.
"The team did a great job to protect Tejay and myself through the whole stage. They made sure we weren’t going to get caught out in any splits and stayed out of trouble as it was a very technical finish.
"Tomorrow is going to be another very demanding stage. It’s a tough finish and I think it will be another GC day for Tejay and myself to hang on as much as we can.”
Stage 4: Escaldes-Engordany to Tarragona (198.2km)
1 Matteo Trentin (Ita) Quick-Step Floors 4:43:57
2 Juan José Lobato (Spa) Team LottoNL-Jumbo
3 Tom Van Asbroeck (Bel) Cannondale-Drapac
4 Edward Theuns (Bel) Trek-Segafredo
5 Jens Debusschere (Bel) Lotto Soudal
6 Sacha Modolo (Ita) UAE Team Emirates
7 Lorrenzo Manzin (Fra) FDJ
8 Søren Kragh Andersen (Den) Team Sunweb
9 Youcef Reguigui (Alg) Dimension Data
10 Jetse Bol (Ned) Manzana Postobon
11 Jonas Van Genechten (Bel) Cofidis, Solutions Credits
12 Michael Schwarzmann (Ger) Bora-Hansgrohe
13 Tobias Ludvigsson (Swe) FDJ
14 Daniel Oss (Ita) BMC Racing Team
15 Adam Blythe (GBr) Aqua Blue Sport
16 Marco Haller (Aut) Katusha-Alpecin
17 Christopher Froome (GBr) Team Sky
18 Fabio Aru (Ita) Astana Pro Team
19 Nelson Oliveira (Por) Movistar Team
20 Lluís Guillermo Mas Bonet (Spa) Caja Rural-Seguros RGA
37 Nicolas Roche (Irl) BMC Racing Team
98 Aaron Gate (NZl) Aqua Blue Sport 0:00:42
106 Michel Kreder (Ned) Aqua Blue Sport 0:00:49
151 Lasse Norman Hansen (Den) Aqua Blue Sport 0:03:30
190 Conor Dunne (Irl) Aqua Blue Sport 0:07:16
191 Peter Koning (Ned) Aqua Blue Sport
192 Mark Christian (GBr) Aqua Blue Sport 0:09:05
193 Stefan Denifl (Aut) Aqua Blue Sport 0:10:10
General Classification
1 Christopher Froome (GBr) Team Sky 13:37:41
2 David de la Cruz (Spa) Quick-Step Floors 0:00:02
3 Nicolas Roche (Irl) BMC Racing Team
4 Tejay van Garderen (USA) BMC Racing Team
5 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Bahrain-Merida 0:00:10
6 Johan Esteban Chaves Rubio (Col) Orica-Scott 0:00:11
7 Fabio Aru (Ita) Astana Pro Team 0:00:38
8 Adam Yates (GBr) Orica-Scott 0:00:39
9 Romain Bardet (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 0:00:48
10 Simon Yates (GBr) Orica-Scott
11 Michael Woods (Can) Cannondale-Drapac 0:01:13
12 Wilco Kelderman (Ned) Team Sunweb 0:01:17
13 Warren Barguil (Fra) Team Sunweb 0:01:22
14 Ilnur Zakarin (Rus) Katusha-Alpecin 0:01:29
15 Sam Oomen (Ned) Team Sunweb 0:01:32
16 Carlos Alberto Betancur Gomez (Col) Movistar Team 0:01:35
17 Igor Anton Hernandez (Spa) Dimension Data
18 Louis Meintjes (RSA) UAE Team Emirates 0:01:43
19 Wout Poels (Ned) Team Sky 0:01:44
20 Luis León Sánchez (Spa) Astana Pro Team 0:01:52
50 Lawrence Warbasse (USA) Aqua Blue Sport 0:08:22
139 Adam Blythe (GBr) Aqua Blue Sport
154 Mark Christian (GBr) Aqua Blue Sport 0:25:34
157 Aaron Gate (NZl) Aqua Blue Sport 0:25:50
158 Michel Kreder (Ned) Aqua Blue Sport 0:25:56
174 Lasse Norman Hansen (Den) Aqua Blue Sport 0:28:34
185 Stefan Denifl (Aut) Aqua Blue Sport 0:32:53
186 Peter Koning (Ned) Aqua Blue Sport 0:33:35
188 Conor Dunne (Irl) Aqua Blue Sport 0:34:06
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