Roche remains in seventh spot

Ireland’s Nicolas Roche is still seventh overall going into today’s 14th stage of the Vuelta a Espana after finishing safely in the main bunch of yesterday’s 172 kilometre trek from Santiago de Compostela to Ferrol.

The Ag2R La Mondiale rider was 36th on the stage, 40 seconds behind a group of seven riders who broke away from the peloton early on and battled it out all the way to the finish.

The stage was won by British rider Steve Cummings (BMC) who attacked his breakaway companions with four kilometres to go and stayed away to the finish.

The win comes as a huge relief to Cummings who has endured a torrid season which saw him excluded from TEam GB for the Olympics after he fractured his hip in a crash back in February’s Tour of the Algarve.

Spaniard Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) still leads overall with Alberto Contador (SaxoBank-Tinkoff Bank) second and Chris Froome (Team Sky) third.