Sagan romps home for stage 3 victory in Boulogne-sur-Mer today
Nicolas Roche has showed the form that brought him 10th overall in the Tour de Suisse last month has not deserted him, taking 7th in the tough uphill slog to the line at the end of today’s third road stage of the Tour de France.
The Ag2r La Mondiale joint team leader had the legs to hold his place during a very testing final 20km on the 197km stage from Orchies to Boulogne-sur-Mer.
Roche then put in a very good effort up the steep ramp inside the final 500 metres after a testing final 2km, much of it lumpy climbing that suited the punchy riders.
Roche was in around 20th position just inside the last 800 metres but by the time they got to the finish line he had the legs to hold his place as others fell away.
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A late breakaway by Sylvain Chavanel (Omega Pharma-Quickstep) was pulled back well inside the last kilometre, and with the strongmen such as yellow jersey Fabian Cancellara (Radioshack-Nissan) and 2011 champion Cadel Evans (BMC) swarming at the front, it was stage 1 winner Peter Sagan who powered up the short sharp climb to take a clear victory.
The Liquigas-Cannondale rider put considerable daylight between himself and the best of the rest, with Roche fighting all the way to take 7th spot on the line.
Dan Martin came home in 105th place, some 5:05 down. He now slips from 24th overall to 87th, at 5:28.
He said at the start of the race he was not going to be too concerned about losing time in the first week. However, the hilly finale today - and especially the climb at the finish - meant many were expecting him to be in the hunt following his 8th place on Sunday’s opening road stage.
The time lost today could prove valuable in securing him leeway to get clear in breakaways when the race hits the mountains rather than be chased down because he is a GC threat.
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Roche goes from 25th to 20th overall following his efforts today; still 25 seconds off the yellow jersey of Cancellara.
With a number of crashes and near misses in the closing kilometres, some of the big favourites lost time, with only 46 riders reaching the finish in Roche’s group and the next bunch some 47 seconds down.
However, the commissaires decided that many of the riders who lost time had been impeded by the crashes inside the last 3km and so credited them with the same time as Roche’s group for the purposes of the general classification.
That decision has cost Roche a number of places on the overall standings. He said after the stage he was not happy and believed many of riders credited with the same time as him had not lost time going up the climb purely because of the late crashes.
Stage Result: Orchies - Boulogne-sur-Mer 197km
1 Peter Sagan (Svk) Liquigas-Cannondale 4:42:58
2 Edvald Boasson Hagen (Nor) Sky Procycling @1 sec
3 Peter Velits (Svk) Omega Pharma-Quickstep
4 Fabian Cancellara (Swi) RadioShack-Nissan
5 Michael Albasini (Swi) Orica GreenEdge Cycling Team
6 Cadel Evans (Aus) BMC Racing Team
7 Nicolas Roche (Irl) AG2R La Mondiale
8 Samuel Sanchez Gonzalez (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi
9 Bauke Mollema (Ned) Rabobank Cycling Team
10 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Liquigas-Cannondale
105 Dan Martin (Irl) Garmin-SHARP @ 5:05
General Classification
1 Fabian Cancellara (Swi) RadioShack-Nissan 14:45:30
2 Bradley Wiggins (GBr) Sky Procycling 0:00:07
3 Sylvain Chavanel (Fra) Omega Pharma-Quickstep
4 Tejay Van Garderen (USA) BMC Racing Team 0:00:10
5 Edvald Boasson Hagen (Nor) Sky Procycling 0:00:11
6 Denis Menchov (Rus) Katusha Team 0:00:13
7 Cadel Evans (Aus) BMC Racing Team 0:00:17
8 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Liquigas-Cannondale 0:00:18
9 Ryder Hesjedal (Can) Garmin - Sharp
10 Andreas Klöden (Ger) RadioShack-Nissan 0:00:19
20 Nicolas Roche (Irl) AG2R La Mondiale 0:00:25
87 Daniel Martin (Irl) Garmin - SHARP 0:05:28
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