Nicolas Roche has day of his life; leads Vuelta on GC, holds climbers' jersey, 3rd on stage

Nicolas Roche has ended best week of his career with his biggest prize ever in the shape of the iconic red jersey of the Vuelta a Espana race leader.

By Gavin McLoughlin

Nicolas Roche experienced the greatest day of his cycling career in taking the overall leadership of the Vuelta a Espana on stage 8 today, Saturday.

It is the first time an Irishman has held a leader’s jersey in a Grand Tour since Sean Kelly won the Vuelta in the spring of 1988.

However, it was not a day of complete glory for Irish cycling, with Dan Martin forced out of the race before the start of today’s stage. A hot favourite to win stages and make a big impact overall, the Garmin Sharp rider suffered severe road rash and concussion after crashing late in the stage yesterday.

Roche rode away from overnight leader Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) as part of a small group in the final 2 kilometres of the first-category Alto de Peñas Blancas summit finish.

Conserving his energy for the final dash for the finish-line, Roche eventually arrived home in third place on the day, 22 seconds ahead of Nibali and 5 seconds behind stage winner Leopold König (NetApp-Endura).

Adding the time bonus of 4 seconds for finishing in third, the Irishman is now 17 seconds clear of Chris Horner (Radioshack-Leopard), who is second overall.

The Saxo-Tinkoff man retains the lead in the mountains and combined classifications, and is now up to second in the points classification.

Coming off the back of a tremendous mountain-top victory on stage 2, today’s performance confirms that the Saxo-Tinkoff rider is in the condition of his life.

Clearly he is able to hang with the elite on the ascents, and with just one hilly time-trial to be tackled the parcours for the rest of the race looks to favour him on current form.

With Roche’s cousin Martin forced to abandon the Vuelta this morning, today certainly has been a real rollercoaster of emotions for supporters of Irish cycling.

He was hoping to use the Vuelta as preparation for the World Road Race Championships in Florence in four weeks time, for which he was one of the big favourites.

However, his crashing out in Spain is a disaster not only because he is absent from the remainder of the race but because of the huge impact it will have on his Worlds build up.

Today’s stage was a 167-kilometre trek from Jerez de la Frontera to the top of the Alto de Peñas Blancas, and it began with an initial break consisting of 14 men, among them Dario Cataldo (Sky), Dominik Nerz (BMC), Alex Howes (Garmin-Sharp) and Rafael Valls Ferri (Vacansoleil-DCM).

Bartosz Huzarski of NetApp-Endura was present too, but he had begun the morning just 45 seconds off the overall lead and therefore Nibali’s team were keen to keep the escapees close.

The Pole eventually dropped back and this allowed the leaders to increase their advantage, but the bunch kept them relatively close all the blisteringly-hot day.

Inside the final 20 kilometres and the finishing climb drew near.

Ivan Basso’s lime-clad Cannondale lieutenants were particularly prominent in fighting to place their man well, but when the lower slopes arrived, Radioshack-Leopard swarmed to the front and quickly blew the strugglers out the rear, apparently trying to aid the chances of Chris Horner who has already led this race and won a stage.

The escapees were suffering too and soon they were scattered all over the slope. Cataldo, Nerz and Valls Ferri were strongest and formed a smooth trio, but this was not to be their day. Valls Ferri was the first to be dropped, before Nerz and Cataldo were caught 5 kilometres from the top.

About 30 riders remained in the favourites’ group, with Roche sitting about halfway back and looking reasonably unruffled. Igor Anton (Euskaltel-Euskadi) was the first to launch an attack, before Horner belied his years with a strong but brief attack that momentarily put his rivals in difficulty.

Just 2.5 kilometres now remained and Roche was grimacing towards the back with about 15 men left in the group. It looked as if the Irishman could not hold on much longer, and when Leopold König powered clear in pursuit of Anton under the 2-kilometre banner you felt this would compound Roche’s difficulty.

But this was not to be. Thibaut Pinot quickly chased after König and Roche managed to dig deep and follow alongside Basso, Daniel Moreno (Katusha) and Bart de Clercq (Lotto-Belisol). Nibali and Horner were left behind.

With König gaining on Anton out front, Basso drove the rest of the group vigorously on, grimacing with the pain of his exertion. Soon the Czech was caught and you held your breath in anticipation of an action-packed finish

Under the flamme rouge and Roche was loitering at the back of the small group. Anton had a mere 6 second lead and the tenacious König jumped after him again.

The NetApp man caught and passed Anton with 500 metres remaining and still Roche was in the wheel of Pinot. König looked marvellously strong as Roche thrust himself out from behind Pinot with 300 metres remaining.

With 200 metres to go, Daniel Moreno desperately tried to salvage the stage honours as Roche emptied himself of his remaining energy, stamping hard on the pedals like a man possessed, his head bobbing all over the place.

None could catch König, and Moreno was in second, but Roche managed to out-sprint the rest and superbly propel himself into the race lead.

A 164-kilometre race from Antequera to Valdepeñas to Jaén lies in wait tomorrow. A second-category climb peaks about 25 kilometres out, before a downhill run to a short, sharp ramp atop which the finish-line sits.