Nicolas Roche went all out for glory at the Vuelta a Espana on the climb to the finish after over 200km in the saddle (Photo: Sirotti)
Nicolas Roche has gone close to taking the lead at the Vuelta a Espana, once again going on an exciting late attack.
The Team Sky man shot from the bunch and looked for a moment as if he would snatch not only the leader’s red jersey but also victory on stage 4 after five hours in the saddle.
When Samuel Sanchez (BMC Racing) attacked with exactly 1.5km remaining on the short steep climb up to the finish at Vejer de la Frontera Roche jumped after the Spaniard.
He caught Sanchez and left him on the front, with the pair holding only a very slim gap of a handful of seconds as they passed under the red kite signalling 1km to the line.
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Back in the depleted peloton, Katusha and Tinkoff-Saxo were setting the pace, with Peter Sagan (Tinkoff-Saxo) and Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) loitering in the top five ready to pounce.
Once Roche got the smell of the whitewash of the finish line, he attacked Sanchez and left him for dead.
The Irish rider went flat out, hoping for the stage win and the leader’s jersey.
Valverde takes the stage win from Sagan, with Roche on the far left in 4th place and just outside the time bonuses (Photo: Sirotti)
However, with around 150m remaining, Roche was visibly tiring as he pushed a massive gear up the climb and Valverde shot past time, with Sagan in his slipstream.
Roche battled hard all the way to the line in the hopes of taking the leader’s jersey if overnight leader Esteban Chaves (Orica GreenEdge) lost some time as the field split going up the ramp to the finish.
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Daniel Moreno (Katusha) also managed to sneak passed Roche at the finish to take 3rd on the stage, with Roche 4th and just one place outside the time bonuses.
In the end, race leader Chaves was only a handful of riders behind Roche, as was Tom Dumoulin (Giant Alpecin) with all three finishing on the same time as the winner.
It meant the order of the top three overall remained the same. Chaves leads from Dumoulin by 5 seconds, with Roche in 3rd some 15 seconds in arrears.
Dan Marin of Cannondale-Garmin rider was 4th on the opening stage and was in the same position overall starting this morning.
He finished in 24th place on the stage in the same time as the winner, with the time gaps in the field opening up just behind him. He remains 4th overall, some 24 seconds off the race lead.
Stage 4: Estepona - Vejer de la Frontera (209.6km)
1 Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar Team 5:07:30
2 Peter Sagan (Svk) Tinkoff-Saxo
3 Daniel Moreno Fernandez (Spa) Team Katusha
4 Nicolas Roche (Irl) Team Sky
5 José Gonçalves (Por) Caja Rural-Seguros RGA
6 Joaquim Rodriguez (Spa) Team Katusha
7 Julien Simon (Fra) Cofidis, Solutions Credits
8 Rafal Majka (Pol) Tinkoff-Saxo
9 Nairo Quintana (Col) Movistar Team
10 Esteban Chaves (Col) Orica GreenEdge
24 Daniel Martin (Irl) Cannondale-Garmin same time
General Classification
1 Esteban Chaves (Col) Orica GreenEdge 13:11:31
2 Tom Dumoulin (Ned) Team Giant-Alpecin 0:00:05
3 Nicolas Roche (Irl) Team Sky 0:00:15
4 Daniel Martin (Irl) Cannondale-Garmin 0:00:24
5 Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar Team 0:00:28
6 Joaquim Rodriguez (Spa) Team Katusha 0:00:35
7 Daniel Moreno Fernandez (Spa) Team Katusha 0:00:36
8 Nairo Quintana (Col) Movistar Team
9 Christopher Froome (GBr) Team Sky 0:00:40
10 Fabio Aru (Ita) Astana Pro Team 0:00:47
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