Team Sky had triple reason to celebrate at the Volta A La Communicat Valenciana today with Wout Poels wrapping up the overall victory as well as the climbers' classification while they were also the best team in the race.
By Brian Canty
Nicolas Roche’s Team Sky have had a weekend to remember with two of their strongest riders wrapping up stage race victories in the space of 24 hours.
While Chris Froome took the overall at the Herald Sun Tour in Australia overnight, Wout Poels followed suit in the northern hemisphere today.
He preserved his advantage at the head of the standings at the Volta A La Communicat Valenciana.
Roche has ridden really well in Spain in recent days despite a troubled few months due to two spider bites.
Roche has been at the service of his team leader since he took the race leader’s jersey on Wednesday’s opening time-trial stage in Spain.
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And the Irishman has also logged some quality racing miles ahead of the bigger March tests like Paris-Nice and the Volta A Catalunya.
The 31-year old only came off antibiotics 10 days ago following a bout of illness brought on by a spider bite in early January, so little was expected of him this week in terms of a result.
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Today, Roche was in a group just over a minute down on the peloton and he finished 140th overall some 25 minutes back.
Roche now has some time to recover before his next big appointment, the Ruta del Sol which starts on Wednesday week, February 17th.
Similarly, fellow Irishman Dan Martin had a week to remember as he took the queen stage of the race on Thursday following a brilliant late attack while he also wore the KOM jersey for two stages.
He lost that yesterday when Poels took the penultimate stage but it still makes a successful week for the Etixx-QuickStep debutant.
Martin rolled home in 62nd in the same time as stage winner and teammate Stijn Vandenbergh.
Stage 5: Valencia- Valencia (120km)
1. Stijn Vendenbergh (Bel) Etixx-QuickStep 2:12:25
2. Dylan Groenewegen (Ned) LottoNL-Jumbo @s/t
3. Raymond Kreder (Ned) Roompot Oranje Peloton @s/t
4. Nacer Bouhanni (Fre) Cofidis @s/t
5. Jonas Van Genechten (Bel) IAM Cycling @s/t
62 Daniel Martin (Irl) Etixx-QuickStep @s/t
95 Nicolas Roche (Irl) Team Sky 0:1:16
General Classification
1. Wout Poels (Ned) Team Sky 14:15:51
2. Luis Leon Sanchez (Spa) Astana @46secs
3. Beñat Intxausti (Spa) Team Sky @56secs
4. Ion Izagirre (Spa) Movistar @0:1:01
5. Javier Moreno (Spa) Movistar @0:1:10
13 Daniel Martin (Irl) Etixx-QuickStep @0:2:00
146 Nicolas Roche (Irl) Team Sky @0:25:14
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