The joy on Nicolas Roche's face tells it all as he crosses the line after winning the 18th stage of the Vuelta A Espana this afternoon. The Team Sky rider beat Haimar Zubeldia (Trek Factory Racing) at the end of a 204-kilometre stage today.
By Brian Canty
Nicolas Roche has won the 18th stage of the Vuelta A Espana; the Irishman proving best in a two-up sprint against Haimar Zubeldia (Trek Factory Racing) this afternoon.
The Team Sky rider played it to absolute perfection in the final today, and though he would have been expected to win in a flat finish, he was pushed all the way by the plucky Spaniard.
It’s the biggest win of Roche’s season so far and indeed, one of the best days of his career, and is even more impressive given the fact he’s had it anything but easy this past couple of weeks.
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He’s taken some heavy falls along the way and some beatings in the mountains also, but today he showed his class when it really mattered.
The Irishman was part of a large break that went away on today’s 204-kilometre stage from Roa to Riaza.
But clearly feeling strong, he attacked the escape and bridged across to Frenchman Cyril Gautier (Europcar) who had already absconded from the lead group.
Roche dropped him and was out front solo by himself for a while, going over the final climb of the day when Zubeldia jumped across to him.
Both riders worked well on the tricky descent as the chasers began to look at each other behind.
That was essentially the winning of the race for Roche and it was no surprise to see Zubeldia shirk a few turns in an effort to save himself some energy for the final.
They pulled out a 41-second lead on the chasers around the 12km to go mark and with the general classification men waging their own war behind it played perfectly into Roche's and Zubeldia’s hands.
Their lead out front was trimmed back to less than 30 seconds inside 10km to go but they ramped up the pace again as the finish line loomed.
Inside the last kilometre, the chasers had been swept up by the main group of contenders so it came down to a drag race between Roche and Zubeldia.
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As expected, the latter sat on as much as he could, refusing to pull through.
But when Roche hit the afterburners with 200 metres to go he really let rip and held on all the way before punching the air in delight.
It was Roche’s first victory in Team Sky colours, having taken his last triumph – stage and outright victory at three-day Route du Sud last June – when riding for Tinkoff-Saxo.
It was not only a huge moment for himself personally but a huge one too for his team who had not won a stage of this Vuelta prior to today.
We’ll have a word from the man of the moment later this evening.
Stage 18: Roa – Riaza (204km)
1 Nicolas Roche (Irl) Team Sky 5:03:59
2 Hamiar Zubeldia (Spa) Trek Factory Racing
3 José Gonçalves (Por) Caja Rural-Seguros RGA 0:00:18
4 Jose Joaquin Rojas (Spa) Movistar Team 0:00:38
5 Esteban Chaves (Col) Orica GreenEdge
6 Joaquim Rodriguez (Spa) Team Katusha
7 Pieter Serry (Bel) Etixx - Quick-Step
8 Adam Hansen (Aus) Lotto Soudal
9 Gianluca Brambilla (Ita) Etixx - Quick-Step
10 Domenico Pozzovivo (Ita) AG2R La Mondiale
General Classification
- Tom Dumoulin (Ned) Giant-Alpecin, 73-45-13
- Fabio Aru (Ita) Astana, at 3secs
- Joaquim Rodriguez (Esp) Katusha, at 1:15
- Rafal Majka (Pol) Tinkoff-Saxo, at 2:22
- Nairo Quintana (Col) Movistar, at 2:53
- Alejandro Valverde (Esp) Movistar, at 3:15
- Esteban Chaves (Col) Orica-GreenEdge, at 3:30
- Dani Moreno (Esp) Katusha, at 3:46
- Mikel Nieve (Esp) Astana, at 4:10
- Louis Meintjes (RSA) MTN-Qhubeka, at 6:10
26. Nicolas Roche (Ire) Team Sky, 45:27.
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