Nicolas Roche recovers from heavy fall

Nicolas Roche had a day he’s unlikely to forget on stage 10 of the Vuelta a Espana yesterday when he came down in a crash and was forced into a frantic chase to preserve fourth overall on the general classification.

The Team Sky man took a heavy fall with less than 50km of the 146km stage from Valencia to Castellon remaining but bounced back to his feet, and with the help of his teammates, began to work his way back to the bunch.

Roche’s elbow looked particularly badly damaged and he had to drop back to the race doctor’s car to receive some medical treatment. No sooner was he back chasing that he required a bike change. Roche managed to regain huge ground before the start of the category two climb 16km from the finish.