Roche maintains grip on third spot in Vuelta

Ireland’s Nicolas Roche remains third overall at the Vuelta A Espana after finishing safely in the main bunch of yesterday’s 168-kilometre fifth stage from Sober to Lago de Sanabria in the north west of the country.

The SaxoBank-Tinkoff rider crossed the line in 16th position, in the same time as stage winner Michael Matthews (Orica GreenEdge) with Maximiliano Ariel Richeze (Lampre-Merida) and Gianni Meersman (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) rounding out the podium.

Dan Martin (Garmin-SHARP) finished towards the back of the peloton in 79th place and is now 31st overall, 1 minute and 47 seconds behind race leader Vincenzo Nibali (Astana).