Nicolas Roche says the pace up the Alto Xorret de Cati ascent was brutal. He felt he fought well and limited his losses but hoped for a little bit more. And he believes tomorrow will be another brute.
Nicolas Roche has said while he fought well in a testing final on today’s stage 8 at the Vuelta he thought he would go slightly better.
The Irishman slipped back a little when Alberto Contador (Trek-Segafredo) and Chris Froome (Team Sky) rode away from everyone on the final climb.
There was only a very short descent to the finish and Roche was among a group of favourites fighting all the way to limit their losses.
In the end he would lost 28 seconds to Froome and Contador and 11 seconds to Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida) Fabio Aru (Astana), Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha-Alpecin), Wout Poels (Team Sky) and 2nd overall Esteban Chaves (Orica-Scott).
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But Roche remains 3rd overall and is looking for very a top general classification ride at this Vuelta.
“The pace was brutal,” he said of the final climb; the brutally steep Alto Xorret de Cati.
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“Straight from the bottom we saw Orica-Scott and Yates put the pressure on. And then Alberto Contador upgraded that again.
“I kind of took my own pace and didn’t try and follow the best. I knew it was one of those really tough climbs.
“And it was all about limiting the losses, rather than fighting for a position.
“To be honest, today I thought I would be a little bit better. I suffered already a little bit yesterday and today I thought I could have done a bit better.
“I fought well, tomorrow is another big day and it’s a climb I’ve done a few times. Now it’s all about recovering and getting ready for tomorrow.
“It seems like every day is a copy and paste with a 10 to 12-minute climb and tomorrow is exactly the same.
“It’s another 4km, 10 per cent average with some 20 per cent parts in the middle. So it will be pretty intense.
“When we come into the longer climbs it will be all about pacing than the intensity of these climbs.”
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