BMC Racing Team will be one of the favourites to win the Abu Dhabi Tour. The race is three flat stages and a hilltop finish on Saturday where Roche, sixth on the left, will be aiming to support GC man Tejay Van Garderen as best he can.
By Brian Canty
Nicolas Roche is back in business today at the Abu Dhabi Tour, a four-day stage race he was runner-up last year to Estonian Tanel Kangert.
Now with BMC Racing Team, the Irish national road and time-trial champion is keen to lay the foundations for a very good season and that cranks up a notch in coming days.
Paris-Nice is his major early-season goal so the next four days are all about logging more racing miles and helping teammate and GC hopeful Tejay Van Garderen try to win.
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“My form is okay, I’m building up now but I won’t be going one better than last year,” he said.
The field is stacked with sprinters and GC men and with good reason because the race is guaranteed to be three bunch sprints with a hilltop finish on stage three to decide the winner.
Roche, as always, will sniff out anything he can but knows he may not have the form to challenge for a stage.
“My role is to keep safe and why not give it a go on stage three on the finish at Jebel Hafeet?
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“Tejay is our main man and with the field here, at this moment, him and Samu (Samuel Sanchez) have a better chance than me… but I would like to do a good effort.”
As well as those two, BMC Racing Team have Italian trio Allesandro De Marchi, Manuel Quinziato, Manuel Senni as well as Dylan Teuns and Loic Vliegen.
Sports Director Jackson Stewart believes Roche can have a big part to play in the race.
“Nico, who was second here last year, and Samuel Sánchez, have both shown early season form and will be able to play a crucial support role on the steeper stage or step up if needed.
“We have already seen some fast finishes in Dubai and Oman, so I think we can expect that here too.
“Our team is definitely up to the challenge and each rider is capable of aggressive racing when it makes sense.”
The only other Irishman in the field is Limerick man Stephen Clancy who rides in the Novo Nordisk colours.
The race starts with a flat 189-kilometre stage and that’s followed by another 153-kilometre flat one on Friday.
Saturday is the big day with the 10-kilometre mountaintop finish after 175 kilometres of racing beforehand.
And Sunday is another day with barely a rise in the road where the likes of Andre Greipel (Lotto-Soudal), Marcel Kittel (Quick-Step Floors), Caleb Ewan (Orica SCOTT) and Mark Cavendish (Dimension Data) should challenge for the stage wins.
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