Nicolas Roche (Team Sky) was in aggressive form at the Tour of Britain and was rewarded with the combativity prize on today’s second stage from Carlisle to Kendal.
The Irish champion made it into the early move along with fourteen other riders and he rode hard throughout the stage, taking KOM points along the way. The lead group split on the difficult climb of The Struggle but Roche managed to hang on.
More riders made it across to the leaders as they raced towards the finish and the decisive move for the stage win was made with 10km to go, with Julien Vermote (Etixx-Quick Step) and Steve Cummings (Dimension Data) attacking together and staying clear. Vermote won the sprint and now moves into yellow with Cummings in second place 6″ down.
Dan Martin nabbed third and now sits in third place overall, 1’04” behind his team-mate Vermote. Roche managed to hang on to finish in 11th place to move to 10th overall.
“I’m happy enough with today,” Roche told TeamSky.com. “We had a plan and we thought that it was important to cover the bigger moves. That was my role, as well as Yogi and Swifty depending how big the moves were.”
“The plan was to keep Wout as fresh as possible for the last climb if it was kept together. Once that big move went it was important I was in there. The group was well-balanced and we rode pretty smart. There were a lot of rouleurs in there which allowed us to get the pace on the flat and control it on the climbs.”
“Once I was up there and the gap had come down in the last 50km I figured anything could happen, so I might as well try to get a few mountains points here and there. I didn’t want to go too deep but I’m second at the moment.”
