Roche falls short in stage bid but climbs to seventh overall

Ireland’s Nicolas Roche made a real statement of intent at the Giro d’Italia yesterday when he moved up to seventh overall following the day’s 203-kilometre trek from Taranto to Viggiano.

The Tinkoff-Saxo rider was among a group of 30 or so who fought it out for the win on the final climb up to the finish and though Roche made a valiant bid for stage honours when he attacked with a kilometre to go, he was reeled in and had to settle for 15th, though he only lost one second to the winner.

Diego Ullisi (Lampre-Merida) was first over the line following a perfectly-timed late attack to win the first hilltop stage of this year’s race after a thrilling final kilometre that saw the first real battle involving the overall contenders.

One of the big pre-race favourites, Cadel Evans (BMC), showed he’s in superb shape and well placed to make an assault on the pink leader’s jersey as he finished second with Julian Arredondo Moreno (Trek Factory Racing) third, one second behind Ulissi. Michael Matthews (Orica-GreenEdge) fought to stay near the front in the final kilometre and finished an impressive sixth, retaining the race leader’s pink jersey for another day.

His team-mate Pieter Weening is second overall at 14 seconds with Evans third overall at 15 seconds.

Roche hailed his team-mates for pacing him on the final climb, though he rued not being able to finish stronger.

“My team did a superb job to position me towards the front and maybe I attacked too early but I saw a moment of hesitation from the others and went for it. My legs are good and I hope to try again in the days ahead. I’m 37 seconds off Matthews and in a race like this, anything can happen,” he said.

His fellow Irishman Philip Deignan didn’t make that front group and he ended up losing over nine minutes, crossing the line in 119th place in a small group.

But the Team Sky domestique won’t be concerned by that as his role was to support the other riders in the team as opposed to chase his own ambitions. In fact, the time he lost will now free him up to possibly go in breakaways in the days ahead — something the Letterkenny rider said he’s keen to do.

Today’s stage is the second longest of the race and takes the riders a whopping 247 kilometres from Sassano to Montecassino. There’s a category four climb after 100 kilometres which shouldn’t cause the riders too much difficulty, but the category two climb up to the finish, which has an average gradient of around 5% could well see a shake-up in the overall standings — and another possibility for Roche to make a bid for the pink jersey.