Nicolas Roche battles up the final climb on Vuelta stage 11. He said that in the rain, today was always going to be very difficult for him.
Nicolas Roche on his Vuelta stage 11 battle
Nicolas Roche has slipped from 3rd out of the top 10 at La Vuelta after losing time on stage 11 today.
With a 15km to finish the 187.5km stage from Lorca to Observatorio Astronómico de Calar Alto, Roche lost contact earlier.
He spent the final 10km pacing himself up the climbing but steadily losing time to all of his general classification rivals.
Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana) would attack the select group and take a solo win after five hours in the saddle.
He was victorious after the early breakaway was caught. That escape group once again included Conor Dunne of Aqua Blue Sport; more of which a little later on stickybottle.
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Lopez finished 14 seconds ahead of race leader Chris Froome. The Team Sky man was with Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida) and Wilco Kelderman (Team Sunweb).
And a further 14 seconds back came a quartet of heavy hitters. They included Romain Bardet (AG2R La Mondiale), Alberto Contador (Trek-Segafredo), Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha-Alpecin) and Mikel Nieve (Team Sky).
Nibali leads Froome and Kelderman up the final climb. And Lopez comes up the home straight for a great victory.
For Roche; his losses came in minutes rather than seconds. He trailed home alone; in 28th place and 4:17 down on the winner.
That result saw him slip to 11th overall, some 4:45 down on Chris Froome. It was a very disappointing day for Nicolas Roche, especially after riding so well n Vuelta stage 10.
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The Irishman told stickybottle before the Vuelta started that he loved the high temperatures at the Vuelta and thrived when it got very hot.
However, with the rain having set in at La Vuelta, his form has been knocked.
“There was obviously some very hard racing from the gun as we expected,” Roche said.
Terrible day in the saddle. I will keep fighting. Still 10 days left.. summer please come back!!!!
— nicholas roche (@nicholasroche) August 30, 2017
“Today I knew that if the rain was going to continue like that it was always going to be a tough day. Unfortunately, I know myself so well," he added in reference to his love of the heat.
"But, even though I was trying to always ride in front, even on the first climb I was struggling a bit.
“But I fought to stay as much as I could in the front part of the group. Once we hit the last climb and the pace went up, my legs were like two blocks of cement. So I just had to limit my losses.
“Obviously, it’s quite disappointing but it’s bike racing. It’s happened to me before in the Vuelta in 2013. But I had lost six minutes, so maybe four minutes isn’t too bad.
“The gaps now are starting to be quite consequent whereas the last few days there were still 15 riders in less than two minutes.
“For sure the weekend is going to be really tough and stage 15 is probably, with today, the queen stage of the race.”
Stage 11: Lorca to Observatorio Astronómico de Calar Alto (187.5km)
1 Miguel Angel Lopez (Col) Astana Pro Team 5:05:09
2 Christopher Froome (GBr) Team Sky 0:00:14
3 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Bahrain-Merida
4 Wilco Kelderman (Ned) Team Sunweb
5 Romain Bardet (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 0:00:31
6 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Trek-Segafredo
7 Ilnur Zakarin (Rus) Katusha-Alpecin
8 Mikel Nieve Ituralde (Spa) Team Sky
9 Darwin Atapuma (Col) UAE Team Emirates 0:01:02
10 David de la Cruz (Spa) Quick-Step Floors 0:01:14
11 Michael Woods (Can) Cannondale-Drapac 0:01:17
12 Wout Poels (Ned) Team Sky
13 Richard Carapaz (Ecu) Movistar Team 0:01:22
14 Pello Bilbao (Spa) Astana Pro Team 0:01:32
15 Fabio Aru (Ita) Astana Pro Team
16 Steven Kruijswijk (Ned) Team LottoNL-Jumbo
17 Johan Esteban Chaves Rubio (Col) Orica-Scott 0:02:05
18 Sam Oomen (Ned) Team Sunweb
19 Sergio Pardilla Bellon (Spa) Caja Rural-Seguros RGA
20 Louis Meintjes (RSA) UAE Team Emirates
21 Tejay van Garderen (USA) BMC Racing Team 0:03:26
22 Daniel Moreno Fernandez (Spa) Movistar Team 0:03:47
23 Gianni Moscon (Ita) Team Sky
24 Jack Haig (Aus) Orica-Scott
25 Sander Armee (Bel) Lotto Soudal
28 Nicolas Roche (Irl) BMC Racing Team 0:04:17
158 Conor Dunne (Irl) Aqua Blue Sport 0:31:42
General Classification
1 Christopher Froome (GBr) Team Sky 45:18:01
2 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Bahrain-Merida 0:01:19
3 Johan Esteban Chaves Rubio (Col) Orica-Scott 0:02:33
4 David de la Cruz (Spa) Quick-Step Floors 0:02:36
5 Wilco Kelderman (Ned) Team Sunweb 0:02:37
6 Ilnur Zakarin (Rus) Katusha-Alpecin 0:02:38
7 Fabio Aru (Ita) Astana Pro Team 0:02:57
8 Michael Woods (Can) Cannondale-Drapac 0:03:01
9 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Trek-Segafredo 0:03:55
10 Miguel Angel Lopez (Col) Astana Pro Team 0:04:11
11 Nicolas Roche (Irl) BMC Racing Team 0:04:45
12 Tejay van Garderen (USA) BMC Racing Team
13 Wout Poels (Ned) Team Sky 0:04:54
14 Sam Oomen (Ned) Team Sunweb 0:05:01
15 Steven Kruijswijk (Ned) Team LottoNL-Jumbo 0:06:10
16 Louis Meintjes (RSA) UAE Team Emirates 0:06:39
17 Mikel Nieve Ituralde (Spa) Team Sky 0:07:47
18 Igor Anton Hernandez (Spa) Dimension Data 0:09:50
19 Sergio Pardilla Bellon (Spa) Caja Rural-Seguros RGA 0:10:24
20 Adam Yates (GBr) Orica-Scott 0:11:00
21 Darwin Atapuma (Col) UAE Team Emirates 0:16:05
22 Jack Haig (Aus) Orica-Scott 0:17:35
23 Daniel Moreno Fernandez (Spa) Movistar Team 0:19:57
24 Romain Bardet (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 0:21:37
25 Nelson Oliveira (Por) Movistar Team 0:26:47
178 Conor Dunne (Irl) Aqua Blue Sport 2:38:18
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