Nicolas Roche struggles to the finish on stage 11 of the Vuelta when the field was blown to pieces in a manner rarely seen even on Grand Tours.
Nicolas Roche’s strong showing on the Vuelta was dealt a serious blow on Wednesday’s stage 11 when a day of extreme climbing saw him lose significant time.
The Irishman trailed home in 52nd place, over 14 minutes down on victor Mikel Landa of Astana.
The Team Sky rider has slipped down the standings from 4th place to 22nd and now trails new race leader Fabio Aru (Astana) by 13:03.
Roche had crashed on Sunday and Monday and hopes that Tuesday’s rest day had come at the perfect time for him to regroup ahead of the epic profile of stage 11 were simply not realised.
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The early signs were bad for Team Sky - on a day with six tough climbs and a summit finish - when Chris Froome crashed soon after the start.
He would struggle back to the main peloton, though not before appearing panicked when he verbally remonstrated with a TV cameraman on a motorbike he felt was getting too close.
However, he was soon dropped and left to struggle over the remaining climbs, eventually finishing 32nd and losing 8:41.
As the racing progressed, the strongmen from the early breakaway were joined from behind by the best of the general classification contenders riding across to them as the climbs split the field.
Chris Froome's early crash and battle back on was the first significant event in a day of action.
Landa was part of that early move and rode an impressive race before striking out for home 9km from the finish to dance up the final ascent to victory.
He would win from team mate Aru by 1:22 with Team Sky’s US revelation Ian Boswell finishing 3rd just 18 seconds later having been part of the early 19-man escape.
Of the other general classification contenders, Joaquim Rodriguez of Katusha was 5th, some 1:59 down on the stage winner.
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The Spaniard, who helped choose today’s route, is now 2nd overall just 27 seconds off Aru.
Rafal Majka was 6th on the stage just 11 seconds down on Rodriguez, with Mikel Nieve of Team Sky finishing on the same time as Majka.
Double stage winner and former race leader Esteban Chaves (Orica GreenEdge) was 8th on the stage, some 2:59 down on Landa with overnight leader Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin) finishing on the same time in 9th.
Two men who lost more time than expected; Alejandro Valverde of Movistar could only manage 12th on the stage and lost 3:04 to the winner while team mate Nairo Quintana was 14th.
The Colombian’s time loss of 4:19 was proof that even some of the best in the world came unstuck on a stage that will live in the memory for many years.
Thursday’s stage 12 takes the riders 172.5km from Andorra to Lleida and with only one cat 2 climb to be negotiated just after 50km, it should be a day for the sprinters.
Stage 11: Andorra la Vella - Cortals d´Encamp(138km)
1 Mikel Landa Meana (Spa) Astana Pro Team 4:34:54
2 Fabio Aru (Ita) Astana Pro Team 0:01:22
3 Ian Boswell (USA) Team Sky 0:01:40
4 Daniel Moreno Fernandez (Spa) Team Katusha 0:01:57
5 Joaquim Rodriguez (Spa) Team Katusha 0:01:59
6 Rafal Majka (Pol) Tinkoff-Saxo 0:02:10
7 Mikel Nieve (Spa) Team Sky
8 Esteban Chaves (Col) Orica GreenEdge 0:02:59
9 Tom Dumoulin (Ned) Team Giant-Alpecin
10 Diego Rosa (Ita) Astana Pro Team 0:03:02
11 Nelson Oliveira (Por) Lampre-Merida 0:03:04
12 Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar Team
13 Rodolfo Torres (Col) Colombia 0:04:19
14 Nairo Quintana (Col) Movistar Team
15 Joseph Lloyd Dombrowski (USA) Cannondale-Garmin
52 Nicolas Roche (Irl) Team Sky 0:14:25
General Classification
1 Fabio Aru (Ita) Astana Pro Team 43:12:19
2 Joaquim Rodriguez (Spa) Team Katusha 0:00:27
3 Tom Dumoulin (Ned) Team Giant-Alpecin 0:00:30
4 Rafal Majka (Pol) Tinkoff-Saxo 0:01:28
5 Esteban Chaves (Col) Orica GreenEdge 0:01:29
6 Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar Team 0:01:52
7 Daniel Moreno Fernandez (Spa) Team Katusha 0:01:54
8 Mikel Nieve (Spa) Team Sky 0:01:58
9 Nairo Quintana (Col) Movistar Team 0:03:07
10 Louis Meintjes (RSA) MTN - Qhubeka 0:04:15
11 Domenico Pozzovivo (Ita) AG2R La Mondiale 0:05:19
12 Romain Sicard (Fra) Team Europcar 0:06:41
13 Gianluca Brambilla (Ita) Etixx - Quick-Step 0:06:42
14 Fabrice Jeandesboz (Fra) Team Europcar 0:07:29
15 Christopher Froome (GBr) Team Sky 0:07:30
22 Nicolas Roche (Irl) Team Sky 0:13:03
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