Nicolas Roche pulls on the front of the group with yellow jersey Wout Poels in his slipstream on stage 4 in Spain. Team Sky claimed another stage and retains the yellow jersey, both courtesy of Poels.
By Brian Canty
It was a mixed day for the two Irishmen in the Volta A La Communicat Valenciana in Spain on Saturday.
Dan Martin lost the mountains jersey on the penultimate stage but Nicolas Roche played a key role in setting up his teammate Wout Poels for stage victory.
Martin went into the 141-kilometre leg from Orihuela to Xorret del Cati a point clear of Poels in the climbers' classification.
But when stage 1 winner and race leader Poels blitzed the field to take the win on the summit finish of stage 4, he leapfrogged the Irishman.
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And with only one stage remaining on Sunday, it’s mathematically impossible for Martin to make up the nine-point deficit he now trails the Dutchman by in that climbers' classification.
It’s been a great week thus far for Martin, however, as he’s taken a stage win and sits 13th on general classification.
On Saturday he stayed right towards the front of the race as the final kilometres loomed.
But it was an horrendously steep haul up to the finish that even proved too much for recently-crowned Tour de San Luis winner Dayer Quintana (Movistar) and a host of other big names.
Astana and Team Sky were responsible for the blistering tempo on the early part of the climb which distanced Martin.
And with three kilometres to go they were down to just three up front; Fabio Aru and Diego Rosa (both Astana) as well as Poels.
And the latter wasted no time in stamping his authority on the race by going it alone for the final kilometre, crossing the line solo in the yellow jersey some 23 seconds clear of teammate Benat Inxtausti.
That was enough to see the Basque rider climb to third overall at 59 seconds with another Spaniard, Luis Leon Sanchez (Astana), now second at 46 seconds.
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Roche finished in a group over eight minutes back but he did some huge pulls on the front to bring back the breakaway and set Poels up for victory, as did world time-trial champion Vasil Kiryienka.
“I’m not feeling the best on the climbs. That’s why I’ve been doing some long pulls on the front," said Roche.
"I did a lot of riding earlier on today and that’s been good to help me get back into shape.
“I haven’t had much of a chance to do anything specific,” he added of recent training and the spider bites that sidelined him for periods in recent months.
“Wout is in top shape and feeling very confident so it was good to work for him today.”
Stage 4: Orihuela - Xorret de Cati (141km)
1 Wout Poels (Ned) Team Sky 3:26:32
2 Benat Intxausti (Spa) Team Sky 0:00:23
3 Jon Izaguirre (Spa) Movistar Team
4 Fabio Aru (Ita) Astana 0:00:25
5 Daniel Navarro (Spa) Cofidis, Solutions Credit
6 Luis Leon Sanchez (Spa) Astana 0:00:31
7 Davide Formolo (Ita) Cannondale Pro Cycling 0:00:38
8 Sergey Firsanov (Rus) Gazprom-Rusvelo
9 Tom Jelte Slagter (Ned) Cannondale Pro Cycling
10 Javier Moreno (Spa) Movistar Team
11 Daniel Martin (Irl) Etixx-QuickStep 0:01:00
123 Nicolas Roche (Irl) Team Sky 0:08:25
General Classification
1 Wouter Poels (Ned) Team Sky 12:03:26
2 Luis Leon Sanchez (Spa) Astana 0:00:46
3 Benat Intxausti (Spa) Team Sky 0:00:56
4 Jon Izaguirre (Spa) Movistar Team 0:01:01
5 Javier Moreno (Spa) Movistar Team 0:01:10
6 Fabio Aru (Ita) Astana 0:01:26
7 Diego Rosa (Ita) Astana 0:01:27
8 Jesus Herrada (Spa) Movistar Team 0:01:31
9 Daniel Navarro (Spa) Cofidis, Solutions Credit 0:01:34
10 Leopold Konig (Cze) Team Sky 0:01:50
11 Davide Formolo (Ita) Cannondale Pro Cycling 0:01:56
12 Bob Jungels (Lux) Etixx-QuickStep 0:01:58
13 Daniel Martin (Irl) Etixx-QuickStep 0:02:00
14 Reto Hollenstein (Swi) IAM Cycling 0:02:02
15 Tom Jelte Slagter (Ned) Cannondale
146 Nicolas Roche (Irl) Team Sky 0:25:14
Climbers' Classification
1 Wouter Poels (Ned) Team Sky 19 pts
2 Aitor Gonzalez (Spa) Eusakdi Basque Country 12
3 Daniel Martin (Irl) Etixx-QuickStep 10
4 Benat Intxausti (Spa) Team Sky 10
5 Jesus Herrada (Spa) Movistar Team 8
6 Daniel Navarro (Spa) Cofidis, Solutions Credit 8
7 Federico Burchio (Ita) Euopa-GM Ovini 6
8 Jon Izaguirre (Spa) Movistar Team 5
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