Nicolas Roche in the orange jersey of race leader at the Route du Sud that he will wear on tomorrow's final stage. He leads the race by 45 seconds from Spaniard Alejandro Valverde.
By Gerard Cromwell
Although he finished fourth on the opening stage of the Route du Sud in France yesterday, Nicolas Roche admitted afterwards that today’s second stage, which traversed the legendary Col du Tourmalet and Col d’Aspin before finishing at the ski station in Val Louron, would be his first real test.
Today he passed that test with flying colours, attacking an elite front group in the final 5km to climb to his first victory of the season, ending the stage with a 45 seconds advantage over teammate Michael Rogers and Movistar’s Alejandro Valverde.
The ttack came after the Movistar team of race leader Jesus Herrada nullified an early breakaway group at the foot of the final climb before Roche’s Tinkoff-Saxo squad took over at the front as the peloton headed towards the summit finish.
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“We caught the early breakaway group with around 15km to go, about 5km from the bottom of the last climb,” said Roche afterwards.
"The team really wanted to race today and they did a great job. When Michael (Rogers) saw everyone was hurting he put the gas down and three of us ended up in a little group of eight or nine riders. A Colombian guy attacked and Eduard (Beltran) went to the front.
"There was a bit of a stall when Edward stopped pulling, so I said I’d chance it and attack.
"I knew, if I wasn’t going to make it, that Michael was flying and he’d have a go afterwards. So I tried to surprise them and went early.
"Afterwards I was told there were a lot of attacks but Michael rode them down every time. I slowly but surely built up a gap and then Michael got second over the line.”
With the race lead in his grasp, Roche kept driving hard for vital seconds until the last 50metres of the stage.
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Having begun the day in fourth place overall, Roche was caught in two minds about whether to try and eek out as big an advantage over his rivals as possible or simply enjoy his first victory of the season as he entered the last few hundred metres.
“It went through my mind, with about 200metres to go, that maybe I should sprint flat out and make sure I had as much time as possible.
“I kept it going until about 50metres to go and then said ‘alright, take a breather and enjoy the last few seconds’. It’s not like I win 20 races a year, so it was nice to be able to enjoy it a bit.
“Any win is a good win for me but today was a pretty tough stage. We had close to 4,000metres of climbing so it was a proper mountain day.
"I don’t have many wins so it’s nice to be able to put the arms up in the air, and it’s even better to be able to do it on a tough mountain stage with a summit finish.”
Not only did the attack give him his first victory of the season, but his winning margin also propelled Roche into the orange jersey of race leader in the three-day French race.
With one day to go, he now leads the race by 45 seconds from Valverde, with Rogers four seconds further back in third place.
The race takes in two third category climbs on the 180km final leg to Castres tomorrow. If Roche manages to hang onto the leader’s jersey it will be his first stage race win as a professional.
“Tomorrow is not as hard, profile wise anyway, but that doesn’t mean it will be easy. The team is strong and focussed though.
“Everybody is in good shape and motivated so hopefully tomorrow nothing crazy will happen.”
Roche also leads the points classification in the three day Pyrenean stage race.
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