Team Saxo-Tinkoff’s Chris Anker Sørensen was very active in the hectic beginning of today’s 187 kilometer long tenth stage of Vuelta a Espana, which had a mountainous profile almost inviting the GC favourites to play their cards. However, Chris Anker Sørensen didn’t make the long-lasting breakaway consisting of Juan Antonio Flecha (Vacansoleil-DCM), Diego Ulissi (Lampre-Merida), Georg Preidler (Team Argos-Shimano), Gianni Meersman (Omega Pharma – Quick-Step), Maciej Paterski (Cannondale), Tomasz Marczynski (Vacansoleil-DCM), Martin Kohler (BMC Racing Team), Juan Jose Oroz Ugalde (Euskaltel Euskadi), Nico Sijmens (Cofidis) and Stef Clement (Belkin Procycling Team).
On the mountainous stretch between Torredelcampo and the uphill finish to Alto Hazallanas, several riders abandoned the race after a very lively start of the stage. When the breakaway finally took off, Katusha, Radioshack and Movistar took turns controlling of the pace of the chasing pack.
On the uphill finish, the escapees were caught and the group of favourites slowly crumbled. With 5 kilometers to go, Chris Horner (Radioshack) launched a fierce attack and distanced the group including Saxo-Tinkoff’s Nicolas Roche. But the group was unstable as the Italian stars, Ivan Basso (Cannondale) and Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) kept testing each other and eventually Nibali created the gap to chase Horner alone.
But no one was able to catch the 41-year-old Radioshack rider and he took the stage win and overall lead. Nicolas Roche finished 7th and is 3rd overall:
”Well, I went 100% and really dug deep in myself all the way up the final brutal climb jumping in and out of the group of favourites. But I’m content and happy with my performance. After doing my very best and going to my maximum physical ability, I can’t be disappointed,” said Saxo-Tinkoff’s Nicolas Roche after the stage.
Sports director, Fabrizio Guidi was quite pleased with the effort as well:
“It was a very tough finish and Nico fought heroically all the way up to the finish line. After being distanced a few times he made his way back to the other favorites and it is this kind of attitude and condition, which makes him a podium candidate in Madrid. Rafal did an impressive effort as well. He is still very young, but he is very close to the top riders already. Tomorrow, we’ll embrace the rest day re-charging our batteries but ww’ll also be inspecting the route for the time trial, “said Guidi.