Roche consolidates in fifth as Horner narrows gap at top to three seconds

Ireland’s Nicolas Roche consolidated his fifth place in the Vuelta a España yesterday, riding solidly on the steep finish of Peña Cabarga and putting time into the two riders behind him in the general classification.

The 186.5 kilometre stage was won by Sky’s Vasil Kiryienka, who was part of a 15-man break which went clear early on, and built what was at one point a lead of over 10 minutes. He then attacked on the Alto del Caracol climb with more than 40 kilometres to go and soloed to victory, beating former breakaway companion Chris Anker Sörensen (TeamSaxo-Tinkoff) by 28 seconds and Adam Hansen (Lotto Belisol) by one minute and 18 seconds.

All-out attack
The American Chris Horner (RadioShack Leopard), who had started the day second overall, launched an all-out attack on the final climb in a bid to try to retake the race leader's red jersey he had worn earlier in the Vuelta.

He raced in to take sixth, one minute 53 seconds behind Kiryienka, with riders from the break taking up the places ahead of him.

However the rider who held the jersey, Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) fought hard to limit his losses. He finished behind general classification rivals Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) and Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) in 10th, dropping 25 seconds to Horner but retaining red by a slender three seconds.

“We’ll have to see how things go,” said Horner, who was disappointed not to take over at the top. “I can’t stress on three seconds right now. I made up a lot of time today and the gap is smaller; that’s what is important to me. The team is fantastic, I just can’t thank them enough.”

Fortified
Roche finished in the same time as Nibali, netting a solid 11th on the stage. He took 35 seconds out of Domenico Pozzovivo (Ag2r La Mondiale), who had started the day just behind him in sixth, and fortified his lead over the Italian to a solid two minutes and one second.

Thibaut Pinot (FDJ), who was seventh in the general classification, dropped a further six seconds to Roche and is now two minutes 31 seconds back.

Speaking afterwards, Roche said that he was trying to gain time on the rider ahead of him in the general classification, Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha).

“I went too deep and Rodriguez got me back. I have a few kilos more than him!” he said. “I wanted to be fifth of the GC contenders, so today I’m where I should have been.

“It’s not a super performance but also not a bad performance. The tempo was pretty high. I asked Rafal [his team-mate Rafal Majka] to keep a steady pace as long as he could. I’m happy today.”