Roche wins rousing Vuelta stage

Nicolas Roche showed his determination to take a spectacular victory from the breakaway on stage 18 at the Vuelta a Espana.

Nicolas Roche showed his determination to take a spectacular victory from the breakaway on stage 18 at the Vuelta a Espana.

The Irishman proved strongest of a 25-man group as he saw off Haimar Zubeldia in a two-up sprint into Riaza, taking the second Vuelta stage win of his career.

With the general classification contenders firing huge shots at one another behind, Roche knew he had to push on as the break saw their advantage slashed on the final climb of the Puerto de la Quesera.

When it came to the sprint Roche was confident enough to lead it out and didn't allow Zubeldia (Trek Factory Racing) the chance to come around him.

In the pack behind Mikel Nieve was able to mix it up as the lead group were whittled down to a select group of contenders. Attacks flew over the final climb and Nieve was able to put in a few digs of his own as he held on to his ninth place overall.

The battle for the red jersey saw Fabio Aru (Astana) try to put leader Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin) under pressure in a bid to overturn a three-second deficit.

Dumoulin was equal to the task on the climb and the GC contenders all finished in a group, 38 seconds back on a victorious Roche.

Explaining a frenetic finish, Roche told Eurosport: "There was a rider 20 seconds behind and when we saw that I just said 'let's just ride to the finish and we'll do a mano a mano sprint'. It was actually really good and we co-operated well since the 15km to go sign. I think that was our only chance.

"Coming into the sprint I wanted to lead it out. Haimar is someone who has got a lot of experience and I've lost a few sprints against him in the past, in [Clasica] San Sebastian for example. I didn't want to have a slow-start sprint, I wanted to have a really high speed one.

"I thought I'd try and manage my own pace. I smiled because I was happy that it worked. I thought 'yes, for once I didn't mess up'. I've had a few second and third places and I've always lacked that little small bit at the finish. Today it finally worked out."

Brailsford and Nieve happy

Team Principal Dave Brailsford was full of praise for Roche after the stage following a much-deserved stage win.

"It was a really good day," he said. "Nico managed the period between the end of the Tour [de France] and start of the Vuelta very well and he came here looking to ride for the GC. He started off fantastically well but then he had his crash which took him out of the overall contention. It was a tough couple of days for him after that, but he's bounced back.

"I don't think he was thinking about the win this morning, but we wanted somebody in the breakaway for the team GC and he did a fantastic job. I'm super happy for him, he's a really nice guy, very popular and very well liked, and for him to win a Grand Tour stage for Team Sky is brilliant. 

"Mikel's ridden really well here. He's shown again that he's in good shape and he's a really important member of our team. When he gets a chance, he'll take it, but he's the first one to commit to his team-mates when he needs to as well."

Nieve was also happy to come through the stage without issue and retain his foothold in the top 10.

"The goal for today was to be in the breakaway and to win if we could," he told Eurosport."That's exactly what we managed to do. The Vuelta has been so strong this year and there have been so many crashes. With this victory we are happy at Team Sky. We've had to fight a lot in this race.

"The last climb wasn't so hard for me. It was hard to find gaps out there but we still have the stage win which is great. Tomorrow it will be hard but a relatively normal stage. It's a rolling parcours and we'll give it our best shot."