Nicolas Roche (Tinkoff-Saxo) proved that he has come out of the Giro d’Italia in excellent condition when he won today’s big mountain stage of the Route du Sud in solo fashion. The Irishman attacked on his own on the final climb to the finish in Val-Louron and out 40 seconds into a chasing group that included big favourite Alejandro Valverde (Movistar).
Nicolas Roche has a reputation of coming out strongly of the grand tours and it is no coincidence that he has very often been riding really well in the Vuelta a Espana on the back of a participation in the Tour de France. To change things a bit, he has been riding the Giro d’Italia this year, hoping to reach his peak condition for the Tour.
The plan seems to be working perfectly as the Irishman has clearly come out of the Italian grand tour in exceptional condition. This week he is making his return to competition in the Route du Sud and today he won the race’s queen stage that included famous climbs like Col du Tourmalet and Col d’Aspin before a mountaintop finish in Val-Louron.
At the bottom of the final climb, the peloton has caught the lone surviving rider from the early break, Alexis Vuillermoz (Ag2r) and so all was set for a big showdown between the race favourites on the final climb. All eyes were on big favourite Alejandro Valverde but it was Tinkoff-Saxo that took the bull by the horns.
First they launched Christopher Juul-Jensen off in an attack and when the Dane was brought back, Roche made his move. With impressive power, he out 40 seconds into his nearest chasers that included both his teammate Michael Rogers and Valverde to take a fabulous solo win.
The stage took place over 178.6km from Bagneres-de-Bigorre to Val-Louron and after a flat opening lap around the starting city, the riders tackled the Col du Tourmalet. After a short flat stretch in the valley, it was time for the Col d’Aspin whose descent led almost directly to the bottom of the climb to the finish.
Very early Nacer Bouhanni, Mickaël Delage (FDJ.fr), Jérôme Cousin (Europcar), Alexis Vuillermoz (AG2R La Mondiale), Pierre-Luc Périchon (Bretagne-Dried), Nathan Earle (Sky), Carlos Quintero (Colombia) and Flavien Dassonville (BigMat) escaped and they started the Tourmalet with a 4-minute advantage. Egoitz Garcia (Cofidis) and Benjamin Giraud (La Pomme) set off in pursuit and after he had dropped his French companion, the former managed to make the junction before the top.
In the peloton Movistar set the pace and they kept the gap stable at around 5 minutes. At the top, the escapees were 4.20 ahead but as the peloton slowed down, they managed to reopen their advantage to 5.45.
Giraud made the junction on the descent but the peloton sped up as they neared the Aspin. They brought the gap down to 3 minutes where it was kept stable for a while but at the bottom of the climb, it was less than 2.30.
Perichon tried to anticipate the action but was soon brought back. Instead, Cousin took off and the Frenchman was the lone leader for a while until Vuillermoz bridged the gap.
The Ag2r rider recovered a bit before he took off on his own while behind Earle, Garcia and Quintero formed a trio, with Dassonville being on his own a bit further back. The peloton swept up those two group and at the top only Vuillermoz and Cousin were still ahead.
Cousin was brought back on the descent while Vuillermoz did well to maintain a 1.40 advantage on the descent. In the valley, however, he started to lose ground and at the bottom of the final climb he was caught by the peloton which was led by Alexandre Geniez (FDJ), Juul Jensen and Bernhard Eisel (Sky).
Juul Jensen launched an attack just before they hit the climb and he stayed clear for a little while. On the lower slopes, he was brought back while the peloton was whittled down to just 11 riders with 5km to go.
Roche now launched his attack and while race leader Jesus Herrada got dropped, he kept increasing his advantage. He reached the finish with a 40-second advantage to take his first victory since last year’s Vuelta.
With the win, he also takes over the leader’s jersey from Herrada and barring accident, he should win the race overall. The final stage includes a couple of smaller climbs but a mostly flat finish should make sure that it is one for the sprinters unless a brave attacker can benefit from a small hill in the finale.
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