Nicolas Roche is in great form at present and showed that in Italy in recent days. Now he goes into another Italian event, the Tour of Lombardy, as leader of BMC Racing. And he says he feels confident. Above, training on the Bergen Worlds course alongside An Post-Chainreaction and Team Ireland manager Kurt Bogaerts. Irish junior Luke Smith is to the right (Photo: Sean Rowe)

Nicolas Roche to lead BMC at Tour of Lombardy

Following his recent string ride at Giro dell’Emilia Nicolas Roche will lead BMC Racing at the Tour of Lombardy.

Roche said immediately after his 4^th place at the weekend that he was looking forward to Il Lombardia this Saturday.

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And now he gets the best possible chance in the second last WorldTour race of the year with the full backing of his squad.

“Coming out of Giro dell’Emilia with fourth place was a good indication of where my form is at the moment,” the Irish rider said.

“The two races are quite different and maybe the short, steeper climbs of Giro dell’Emilia are more suited to me. But I’m confident I can do another good result on Saturday.

“Il Lombardia is definitely one of the toughest, if not the toughest, one-day races of the year. So it would be nice to wrap my season up well.

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“We have a strong team and as long as the legs are good on the day, I think it will be a good race.”

BMC Racing sports director Max Sciandri said Nicolas Roche could get a good result.

“We saw at Giro dell’Emilia that Nicolas Roche is in great shape,” Sciandri said.

“And (he) can do well in these hilly Italian races. So, I think Nicolas can do well again this Saturday.

“Alessandro De Marchi is also looking strong and motivated after the UCI World Championships.

“And that’s exactly how you need to go into a tough race like Il Lombardia if you want any chance of a good result. You need the legs and you need the motivation.

Easier Tour of Lombardy final section

“It’s a selective course. It’s more concentrated in the final section and personally, I think it’s probably not as hard as last year’s course.

“The finish is in Como but from the Madonna del Ghisallo onwards, it’s a rollercoaster all the way to Como.

“The weather seems like it will be good and we’ll play our cards in the best way possible.”

Also in the BMC team for the Tour of Lombardy are Damiano Caruso, Martin Elmiger, Ben Hermans, Amaël Moinard, Michael Schär and Manuel Senni.