Nicolas Roche follows his father’s footsteps
After the third stage, 26-year-old Irish cyclist Nicolas Roche stands in 11th place overall, and his France-based team AG2R-La Mondiale has jumped from 17th to 9th in the team classification in only one stage.
"We know we won't be riding for overall victory at the Tour," manager Lavenu told French newspaper L'Equipe. "Nicolas Roche has ambitions in the general classification—measured ambitions of finishing in the top 15.”
Team Leader Roche went home with second and third place finishes in stages at the Tour de France last July, and he remains his team's best chance for a stage win. Roche was involved in both of the first stage crashes, but remains optimistic.
“I am okay…Just some bruises and grazing,” Roche told VeloNation. “It’s nothing too serious … Top 20 would have been superb, but I was satisfied enough, time-wise.”
He went on to finish 12th in the third stage, above Alberto Contador and Lance Armstrong.
Nicolas Roche follows in the footsteps of his father, Stephen Roche, who dominated in 1987 after being only the second cyclist ever to achieve the Triple Crown of Cycling, that is, winning the Tour de France, the Giro d'Italia, and the Road World Cycling Championship in the same year. The elder Roche has 58 career wins.
"While it is a very hard and sometimes very cruel profession, my love for the bike remains as strong now as it was in the days when I first discovered it. I am convinced that long after I have stopped riding as a professional I will be riding my bicycle. I never want to abandon my bike. I see my grandfather, now in his seventies and riding around everywhere. To me that is beautiful. And the bike must always remain a part of my life," said Stephen Roche.
"Dad was a fantastic bike rider end of story and his record speaks for itself. That is not a problem in anyway. I am proud of his achievements and sometimes I find myself just looking at his record as a cyclng fan would and thinking wow, he was something else in his prime. Only a very select few ever bettered him,” said Roche to the Telegraph.
Roche turned professional in 2005, signing a deal with Team Cofidis, after his aggressive riding and impressive results on the Irish National Team caught their attention. He is considered one of the most consistent riders, with the ability to achieve top ten finishes in one day races as well as stage races.
Roche has competing in the Beijing Olympics, the Giro d’Italia and the Vuelta a Espana, and in his first Tour de France in 2009, he earned five top ten finishes in stages and finished 23rd overall. After he won the Irish National Road Race Championship in June 2009, Roche announced that he had been selected by Team Ag2r to ride his first Tour de France.
He finished in 23rd place overall, 2nd on Stage 14 and 4th on Stage 16. He was UCI World Ranked 144th at the end of 2009, helping Ireland to place 16th in the team rankings. For 2010, he plans to emulate the success of his first Tour, and put his own name to the list of winners.
"I am pretty analytical and a harsh critic of my own riding. I remember after finishing the Tour last yeat that apart from enjoying a glass of champagne on the Champs-Élysées my overriding emotional intially was disappointment. Perhaps I could have got a place higher in the green jersey, perhaps I could have placed a bit better in the white jersey. It was only a couple of weeks later that I was able to reflect that actually over three weeks I put in a pretty good effort and there was plenty to be proud of and a good launching pad for other things.”
He finished the third stage in a small group, 53 seconds behind the day’s winner Thor Hushovd, placing him at 11th overall, 1:42 behind yellow-jersey holder Cancellara.
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