Roche has really pushed himself to the maximum and seems strong as the Tour nears its finish
A great late charge by Nicolas Roche on stage 18 of the Tour de France today, Friday, bagged him fifth on the day but took him agonisingly close to a stage victory and left Irish fans on the edges of their seats.
After a stage of 222.5km, the Ag2r man was passed just metres before the finish line in Brive-la-Gaillarde, first by Team Sky fast man Mark Cavendish and then by a couple of other riders at the very head of the peloton.
Roche attacked in pursuit of the day’s main breakaway, getting clear of the peloton at the 9km to go mark. It appeared as if the Irishman was hunting for some time gains that might see him in the top 10 overall after tomorrow’s time trial.
Advertisement
However, his main threat for that 10th spot is the German Andreas Kloden, who also made it into the move with Roche late on today.
Because of that, in the closing kilometres Roche’s bid to improve his general classification standing became an eyeballs out effort to pick up a stage win.
It was with 9kms to go that Roche attacked with Kloden (RadioShack-Nissan) and Luis Leon Sanchez (Rabobank) and they very quickly caught the remains of the breakaway that were at that stage holding a gap of around 30 seconds.
The group worked for a short period but never really got a proper shared effort going and soon their lead was back to around 10-15 seconds as a light drizzle made the roads greasy. The sprinters teams began chasing hard behind to try and overhaul the escapees and set their men up for a mass gallop.
Related News
After some attacking among the leaders saw the group fragment only to come back together again, Roche put in a strong effort up a slight incline with 3km remaining. At first that split the leaders but with Luis Leon Sanchez apparently unwilling to commit fully up front with Roche, the lead group came together again.
Roche appeared the most anxious of the leaders to try and keep their momentum going and stayed on the front for a period.
At one point, with just under 2km to go, Roche was on the front of the breakaway urging the others to come through while his cousin Dan Martin was on the front of the bunch trying to bring it all back together for his Garmin-Sharp team’s US sprinter Tyler Farrar.
With 1.5km to go it was the yellow jersey of Sky’s Bradley Wiggins who took up the chase, putting in a massive turn at the front of the bunch to close the gap to the leaders to just a few seconds.
Roche decided he still had a chance and glancing back to assess the gap he then jumped for the line just inside 500metres to go.
The crafty Sanchez, already a stage winner in this year’s race, took Roche’s wheel and refused to come around him, opting instead to bide his time until the very last moment in the hope of sprinting past the Irishman for the win.
However, Cavendish sensed the stage was his and opened the gallop in the bunch very far out, with his kick carrying him up to the breakaway and around Roche and Sanchez just yards from the line to take a great win. Matt Goss (Orica Green Edge) took second with green jersey wearer Peter Sagan (Liquigas Cannondale) in third, followed by Sanchez in fourth and then Roche in fifth.
It was another great ride by the battling Irishman ahead of the last big push to try and move up from 11th overall into the top 10 in tomorrow’s TT. Dan Martin is 35th on GC.
Topics
