Nicolas Roche was caught out on Vuelta stage 6; among all but 50 riders distanced after a crash split the field. Late crosswinds and a hefty pace at the front ensured no regrouping (Photo: BMC-Chris Auld)
Nicolas Roche and Dan Martin were caught on the wrong side of a split in the peloton yesterday on stage 6 of the Vuelta after a crash and crosswinds.
Roche (BMC Racing) finished in a 30-man group - the second 'bunch' on the road - some 1:44 down, and in 80th place.
Dan Martin (UAE Team Emirates) was 111th, in a group 3:05 off the leaders. The time loss makes no difference to Martin.
He plans to target stage wins later in the race. He is not riding for general classification.
And the Irish rider has already said he feels his body coming around in anticipation of the chances to come on the climbs.
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Roche had been expected to do a general classification ride, especially after team leader Richie Porte lost so much time on stage 2.
'It was always going to tag a few riders and that's precisely what happened!' ?
The islands in the road after this turn meant it was only ever going to end one way! ?#LaVuelta18 pic.twitter.com/ESsQmvnl2E
— Eurosport UK (@Eurosport_UK) August 30, 2018
However, with more time relinquished yesterday; Roche is now almost four minutes down on most of the general classification men.
He is 26th overall and some 5:07 down on race leader Rudy Molard (Groupama-FDJ). While aiming for a top 10 ride would not be impossible, it is much more difficult now.
Martin, who is now 77th at 20:36, will be given leeway to attack as he is so far down. Roche may also get a chance to go up the road given his time loss.
And making it all the way in an escape, which have been successful on several stages already, would see him climb back up the standings.
In 2009, for example, Philip Deignan went clear in a Vuelta breakaway and made it all the way to win.
He also gained minutes on the general classification group and jumped from 18th to 9th overall.
Roche could do something similar, but it is a long shot. However, he has said he feels more form will come.
And with one of the best recovery rates in the peloton, he may yet pull a stage out of the bag.
Yesterday a piece of street furniture in the middle of the road resulted in a number of riders crashing hard with about 27km remaining.
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Bouhanni gets his stage win. King of the mountains Maté leads the early escape.
The main field rounded a right hander and into the path of a traffic island that was not manned by a marshal warning of its presence.
Among those to hit it were Fabio Felline (Trek-Segafredo) Victor Campenaerts (Lotto Soudal) and Mike Teunissen (Team Sunweb). That incident caused a split in the main field.
And because the pace was really cranking up and the crosswinds were significant in an exposed sector of the stage after the split, no regrouping ever took place.
By the time the main field swung into the finish for a bunch sprint after 155.7km into San Javier Mar Menor there were just 50 riders in the pack.
Nacer Bouhanni (Cofidis) won the day from Danny van Poppel (LottoNL-Jumbo) and Elia Viviani (QuickStep).
New European champion Matteo Trentin (Mitchelton Scott) put in a good sprint but faded to 5th. He threw up his hand in protest at Bouhanni moving sharply to his left just before the line.
However, the last second shimmy was nothing to write home about and didn’t trouble the commissaires.
For a man accused in the media after stage 5 of trying to punch his manager inside the team car mid-stage, it was a great result for Bouhanni.
? Palomitas | Pop-corn ✅
? Sofá | Sofa ✅
? Resumen Etapa 6 | Summary Stage 6 #LaVuelta18 ⬇ pic.twitter.com/6vIC42x9vl— La Vuelta (@lavuelta) August 30, 2018
Early in yesterday's stage a three-man move had gone clear. It featured king of the mountains Luis Angel Maté (Cofidis), Jorge Cubero (Burgos-BH) and, surprisingly, BMC’s Richie Porte.
They gained almost four minutes, but the sprinters' teams and the race leader's squad never let them go further.
Indeed, their gap was much smaller than four minutes for most of their time on the attack.
Maté and Porte went back to the peloton and were reabsorbed with 33km remaining. Cubero was recaptured with 28km remaining.
As well as Roche and Martin, others caught out in the stage 6 splits included Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) and Wilco Kelderman (Team Sunweb).
Kelderman punctured after the crash and as the hammer was down in the front section of the race.
He and Pinot both finished in Nicolas Roche’s group, as did Louis Meintjes (Dimension Data).
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