Nicolas Roche has said he was reasonably happy with his ride at the Giro d’Italia yesterday when he took 3rd place on stage 18, adding stage winner Alberto Bettiol was just too strong for him on the day.
Roche made the
large breakaway, with two of his Team DSM team mates, and when the racing hit
the last 35km, with four short and sharp climbs, the breakaway blew to pieces.
Roche and Bettiol
(EF Education Nippo) emerged out front ahead of the others but on the last
climb the Italian was stronger than the Irishman and rode away to victory.
Simone Consonni (Cofidis) then caught and passed Roche just before the finish
for 2nd place, with Roche placing 3rd.
Roche said when Rémi Cavagna (Deceuninck-QuickStep) attacked from the group and had over 30 seconds with 16km to go, he felt it was wise to go after Bettiol when he attacked.
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“I tried to follow the Italian but he was really strong and I just couldn’t hold his wheel. I did half the climb and the full descent just a few seconds behind him but it took me 6km to catch him as he slowly closed in on Cavagna,” he said in his Irish Independent diary.
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And while he got back to Bettiol, and Cavagna would then crack, Roche said when Bettiol distanced him on the final climb he was in real trouble.
“With just
8km to go, I was in the red straight away and had to pace myself to get over it,” he said. “I emptied the tank
on the run-in to the finish but couldn’t get any closer to him.
“I completely
cracked in the last kilometre with the headwind and with 300m to go Simone
Consonni passed me to snatch second place. My legs were completely gone.”
His team mate
Nikias Arndt caught Roche on the line but didn’t pass him. Afterwards, Roche
said Arndt was frustrated as he believed Roche would have been better staying
in the group with him to chase Bettiol.
However, while they had a heated exchange over that issue, Roche said it quickly blew over and ultimately he believed he was right to follow Bettiol as he was so strong.
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