Shake-up on Team AG2R
An exhausted Nicolas Roche, coughing and wheezing at the summit finish of stage 17, managed to convey that he was pleased with his performance of the day and his Tour so far. At the Col du Tourmalet, the second visit to the mountain in the 2010 Tour de France, the Irishman was the 12th contender to cross the finish line, earning him a bump from 18th overall up to 15th, 16 minutes behind the Tour leader.
“It was really, really fast from the valley,” said Roche. “And it’s such a hard climb, and I’m just so breathless now. My chest’s burning with the cold air.”
His announced goal before the Tour began was to place in the top 15, and he has managed to be there for 11 of the Tour’s 17 stages so far, climbing as high as the eighth overall in the seventh stage. He fell out of the top 15 in the Alps, but climbed back in stage 10, only to fall out again in the Pyrenees. Roche has managed a 13th and 12th place in the two Tourmalet stages, however, so he’s put himself into a good position to maintain a top 15 standing for the last three flat stages.
“I’ve been on the limit, giving the maximum everyday,” he said. “But this was amazing today. It’s a monument in cycling this climb, and the weather’s made it epic. It was a race for a lot of things, the last big opportunity for climbers to move up the general classification, and a race for the stage and the yellow jersey.”
Dispute with Gadret
Roche has placed two places ahead of his teammate John Gadret in both the stage finish as well as the overall standing. With 15th and 17th rankings between them, as well as teammate Christophe Riblon’s stage 14 win, Team AG2R has earned the fourth place in team classification. While the performance is something to celebrate, the mood on the team is a bit contentious, since Roche and Gadret put a serious spoke into their comraderie after Monday’s stage to Bagnères-de-Luchon.
“If John Gadret is found dead in his hotel room in the morning, I will probably be the primary suspect,” wrote Roche in his blog. “But after today's stage, as he sat beside me on the team bus I had great difficulty in not putting his head through the nearest window."
Six kilometres from the top of the climb to Port de Bales, Roche was racing with the favourites when he punctured his front tire. As the team leader, he asked Gadret for his front wheel, a standard request. Surprising, Gadret said no and went on the attack.
“At first I thought he was joking, but soon realized he wasn't when he kept riding past me.”
It was in this stage, which the Irishman entered with a 14th overall standing, that he fell out of the top 15 for the second time. If he had remained in the favourites group he could have improved his ranking and would have been within reach of the top 10. Roche eventually got a wheel from a neutral service car, but wasted much more time than necessary and rushed to put it on.
“All I could think of was getting to the finish as quickly as possible. Rage alone though, wasn't going to get me back up to the front of the race. Unbelievably, Gadret had attacked Schleck and Contador near the top, even though there was a group five minutes up the road and he had absolutely no chance of winning the stage.”
The team leader finished the stage eight minutes behind the stage winner, over twice as far behind as the group that he had been riding comfortably with, and dropped to 17th in the overall rankings.
Tags: