‘We’ll do a mano a mano sprint’ – Nicolas Roche describes his brilliant Vuelta stage win

Nicolas Roche (Team Sky) put in a brilliant performance to take a great stage win in the Vuelta a Espana today. He had enough strength to beat Haimar Zubeldia in a two-up sprint into Riaza.

The pair had been part of a 25-man group and Zubeldia followed Roche as they went clear over the top of the first category climb, the Puerto de la Quesera. They worked well together to increase their lead to nearly a minute.

At the finish, Roche led out the sprint with Zubeldia unable to come around him. It was the second Vuelta stage win of his career.

Roche described the finish to Eurosport afterwards: “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.”

Team Principal Dave Brailsford was full of praise for Roche as he said afterwards: “It was a really good day. 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.”