Nicolas Roche remained third overall in the Vuelta a España after Tuesday's stage four, rolling across the line as part of a main bunch led home by Matteo Trentin (QuickStep Floors).
Roche placed 37th and stays two seconds behind ongoing race leader Chris Froome (Team Sky). The Irishman is level on time with the second-placed rider, Trentin's teammate David de la Cruz.
“I think after the first few days, it was important to, as strange as it sounds, recover a little bit,” said Roche. “The team did a great job to protect Tejay (van Garderen, 4th overall) and myself through the whole stage and make sure we weren’t going to get caught out in any splits and stay out of trouble as it was a very technical finish.
“Tomorrow is going to be another very demanding stage. It’s a tough finish and I think it will be another GC day for Tejay and myself to hang on as much as we can.”
Irish Aqua Blue Sport team was hoping to dispute the sprint finish but was affected by crashes. British rider Adam Blythe was best of the squad in 15th.
