Nicolas Roche and his journey with Ag2r-La Mondiale
Nicolas Roche is an Irish professional player and is currently amongst the few non French cyclists representing the French team Ag2r-La Mondiale. He started his career as one of the youngest Pro-Tour racers as he stepped in professional racing in 2004.
He signed a two year contract with Ag2r-La Mondiale and was selected by the team to ride in the Tour de France 2009 as he impressed the team management by winning the Irish National Road Race Championship. Roche finished 23 in the final general classification
and lived up to the expectations of the selectors as he finished second at stage 14 and stage 16 during the Tour de France 2009.
Following a good debut performance in the previous year Roche was chosen to lead the team Ag2r-La Mondiale in the Tour de France 2010 which was the most controversial tour of his life so far. Roche had to bear a flat tyre during the stage 15 and was expecting
to get some help from his team-mates as he was leading the team but help was refused by John Gadret and Roche had to wait for the service car.
Roche finished 17th overall and was furious on Gadret as he raged with fury after the stage and said, “If John Gadret is found dead in his hotel room in the morning, I will probably be the primary suspect.”
Roche following the event wrote in an Irish website that he had never been very close to his team-mate Gadret but there were no serious difference amongst the two and there was nothing between them to hate each other neither. He was really angry at his team
made after the incident as Roche stated, “But after today’s stage, as he stood beside me on the team bus I had great difficulty in not putting his head through the nearest window.”
Earlier in his career, Roche had to choose between his nationalities as his dad Stephen Roche (a former Irish cyclist champion) was Irish and his mother Lydia was French and that was the reason he was advised by French Officials to make the tough choice
of choosing one nationality. Roche who had won the Junior Tour of Ireland in 2002 and finished the 2004 Irish road championship at the third position decided to go for French nationality and it was a big loss to Irish cycling. Nicolas was allowed by Cycling
Ireland and UCI to continue with having both the nationalities.
Roche had a rough 2011 as he had to suffer few crashes this year especially the one at Criterium du Dauphine whereas Gadret is having a much better season this year as he finished 4th overall in the Giro ’d Italia including a stage 11 win in
the Giro.
Gadret has been denied the team leadership despite his good current performance as Roche led his team Ag2r in the Tour de France, 2011.
Nicolas finished 15th at stage 7, 17th at stage 9 and 14th at stage 17 as he ended up at the 26th position after the final general classifications at the Tour de France, 2011.
Roche is looking forward for Vuelta a Espana starting on August 20th as he will be leading the team of 9 cyclists including Guillaume Bonnafond, Dimitri Champion, Cyril Dessel, Steve Houanard, David Le Lay, Lloyd Mondory, Mathieu Perget, Nicolas
Roche while Matteo Montaguti who is the only Italian and a non French cyclist in the AG2R squad for Vuelta a Espana, 2011.
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