IRELAND’S NICOLAS ROCHE (Saxo-Tinkoff) won the second stage of the Tour of Spain as he sprinted clear in the final few metres of the 177.7km ride from Pontevedra to Baiona.
Roche was followed home by Daniel Moreno (Katusha) and Domenico Pozzovivo (AG2R) in second and third respectively.
Giro d’Italia winner Vincenzo Nibali did enough to move ahead in the overall classification as he finished just 14 seconds back, eight seconds ahead of Roche on the early GC standings.
“It is an incredible day for me,” Roche told TVE afterwards.
“I have done a lot of work to be in good shape for this tour.
“I hope to keep having a good performance. If I can get to Madrid in fourth, fifth or sixth (in the overall classification) it will be an incredible tour for me.”
Nibali meanwhile was happy to take the leader’s red jersey at such an early stage but is well aware of the challenge that lies ahead of him over the next three weeks if he is to win the tour for a second time.
“I am in very good condition and happy to have this red jersey that I already had once before back in 2010.
“But the Tour of Spain is very long and hard so I have to keep going day by day.”
The first four hours of the race had been dominated by a three way breakaway as Francisco Javier Aramendia (Caja Rural), Gregory Henderson (Lotto-Belisol) and Alex Rasmussen (Garmin-Sharp) built up a substantial lead over the peloton.
The trio’s advantage was as much as 13 minutes past the halfway mark before Lampre and Astana started to up the pace in the peloton and a strong headwind also began to hinder the leaders.
Aramendia, Henderson and Rasmussen were finally caught just before the 11km category one climb up the Alto do Monte da Groba to finish, but apart from a short lived attack from Amets Txurruka (Caja Rural) a large leading group remained together until the final two kilometres.
Response
Czech Leopold Konig (NetApp) was first to make a break, but Moreno and Roche responded quickly and it was the latter who was stronger in the final few hundred metres to take his first grand tour stage victory.
Spaniards Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) and Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) had a better day after disappointing team time trials on Saturday as they finished just 12 seconds back to remain in contention.
However, it was a disastrous stage for Sergio Henao (Sky) as he was dropped on the final climb and lost 2mins 41sec.
He is absolutely right. For far too long the mentality is and this even goes to the our nick name the ” wee county ” that we are a small county so we dont expect to do well. If we beat a Kildare or a Meath the year is a success which is not acceptable. We have a bigger population than most. Louth does have a large choice to pick from. Look at the counties that surround Louth. Dublin, Meath, Monaghan, Armagh and Down have all enjoyed success in All Ireland competition were Louth is left behind. The question has to be asked, why? Cause the mentality is not right, we shoukd be expecting to beat the teams I just mentioned except for Dublin who are a professional team in everything but name. Dublin are showing the future of GAA and fair play to them.
what would you describe as success would it be winning Leinster?
Winning a Leinster Championship would absolutely be a success for Louth as it has not happened for a long long time. Its all about making baby steps forward to an ultimate target. Why cant they get to the knock out stages of the All Ireland series and build from there year on year. Ciaran Byrne a superb talent whi recently joined Carlton in the AFL even said it himself in an Irish Independent interview “we are a small county so we dont really have a chance in winning a Leinster or All Ireland” so if a mentality like that is in a young star at that stage its definetly an issue and it shouldnt be. 2 of the biggest towns in the country in our county. Some people forget this. We have been perennial underachievers in my opinion.
Winning a Leinster Championship would absolutely be a success for Louth as it has not happened for a long long time. Its all about making baby steps forward to an ultimate target. Why cant they get to the knock out stages of the All Ireland series and build from there year on year. Ciaran Byrne a superb talent whi recently joined Carlton in the AFL even said it himself in an Irish Independent interview “we are a small county so we dont really have a chance in winning a Leinster or All Ireland” so if a mentality like that is in a young star at that stage its definetly an issue and it shouldnt be. 2 of the biggest towns in the country in our county. Some people forget this. We have been perennial underachievers in my opinion.
improvement in the league might be more realistic over the next couple of years as this dublin squad and management have a fixation on winning and that includes Leinster titles and I agree as a dub I would love to see Louth challenge for leinsters
Louth have a bigger population than Kilkenny…so it’s not about population.
Patrick you say you should be expecting to beat teams except Dublin that’s great mentality way better so getting to a Leinster final and its against Dublin do you reckon there’s any point in heading up to croke park
infairness Robbie he is been realistic
Baby steps Robbie, baby steps!!!
Baby steps for life I’m afraid !