Roche second in Tour de France stage

Ireland’s Nicolas Roche has finished runner-up in the 14th stage of the Tour de France, 16 seconds behind Katusha’s Sergei Ivanov, with Hayden Roulston in third.

Rinaldo Nocentini kept hold of the yellow jersey by the skin of his teeth today after George Hincapie’s brave attempt to oust the Italian from the top of the general classification came up just short.

Team Columbia’s Hincapie was part of a 12-man breakaway group that dominated the 14th stage of the Tour – a trek of 199 kilometres from Colmar to Besancon - and he finished eighth behind the winner.

It looked at one point that Nocentini, who stayed in the peloton all day, was going to relinquish the maillot jaune but his AG2R team pulled out all the stops in the final few kilometres to keep their man top of the standings.

Nocentini now sits five seconds ahead of Hincapie, who is second having bumped Astana duo Alberto Contador and Lance Armstrong down a place.

Frenchman Christophe Le Mevel, who was part of the breakaway group, moves into fifth place overall, just behind Armstrong.

Nocentini was relieved to still be in yellow, and said: “I have to thank my team so much. I really wanted to keep the maillot jaune.”

Russian champion Ivanov, who started the day 62nd overall, moves up a handful of places in the standings after this second Tour stage victory of his career. His first came in 2001.

“This one was harder,” Ivanov, who bolted clear of the lead group with 10km left in the stage, told French television station France 2.

“I have been waiting for this for many years. It’s an amazing victory.

“I was waiting for the moment to attack. While some riders made a little stop, I gave all my power. I just decided to go and gave it all I had.”

A 14-strong breakaway group, which included Britain’s Mark Cavendish, had initially gone clear after around 10km.

The sprinter was soon dropped, as was Jens Voigt, who sustained a puncture 51km out and was unable to recover the ground.

By the time the lead group – which contained Ivanov, Roche, Roulston, Hincapie, Le Mevel, Martijn Maaskant, Daniele Bennati, Frederik Willems, Sebastien Minard, Daniele Righi, Gerald Ciolek and Albert Timmer – had gone over the Cote de Lebetain, they had a lead of more than six minutes.

That gap was stretched even further after passing the second category-three climb, Cote de Blamont, and their biggest cushion proved to be around eight minutes and 40secs, about 60km out.

Astana set about closing the gap in the final 50km but it was clear by then the stage winner was going to come from the front dozen.

Hincapie, who did most of the dirty stuff at the front today, began to up the pace and individual attacks started to come about 12km out. The only one that stuck was Ivanov’s.

Roulston and Timmer gave chase in vain but Ivanov built up a lead of 25secs and was not going to be reeled in.

Roche powered past Roulston in the final few hundred metres to claim second.

Hincapie, who finished in the first group behind Ivanov, faced an anxious wait to see if he had done enough to oust Nocentini but some strong work by the AG2R team got the Italian home just in time to preserve the maillot jaune.

Nocentini’s spell in yellow could well end tomorrow, though, in the Alpine ascent to Verbier.

Cavendish, meanwhile, was involved in controversy at the finish as he led home the peloton in 13th place but had his green jersey points taken away by the race jury, who deemed he pushed rival Thor Hushovd too close to the barriers.

The Norwegian was therefore given the 13 points and Cavendish, who was relegated to the back of the bunch, now trails by 18 points.