Roche up to sixth in Spain

Irish cyclist Nicolas Roche has moved up to sixth place in the Vuelta a Espana after finishing in the main group today today.

He now lies one minute and four seconds behind the leader, Spain's Joaquim Rodriguez.

Germany's John Degenkolb claimed his third win of the week, leading home a frantic sprint finish on stage seven of the race.

The Team Argos-Shimano rider, who holds the green jersey, made a break as the finishing line approached to take the plaudits ahead of Italian Elia Viviani (Liquigas-Cannondale) and Allan Davis of Australia (Orica-GreenEdGE).

Team Sky had mounted a strong challenge in the final few kilometres of the 164km stage between Huesca and Alcaniz, but were unable to keep up the pace at the end with sprinter Ben Swift eventually finishing 10th.

The result means there is no change at the top of general classification.

Rodriguez (Katusha), who won yesterday's stage, retains the red jersey with a 10-second lead over Briton Chris Froome (Team Sky).

Alberto Contador (Saxo Bank-Tinkoff) lies third, 36 seconds adrift of the leader.