Nicolas Roche finishes stage 11 at Giro d'Italia yesterday
Nicolas Roche has said yesterday's stage 11 at the Giro d'Italia was like the Grand National as the riders battled for position entering the first section of gravel and Ineos Grenadiers lit it up.
Roche, who is riding the Giro for Team DSM in support of Romain Bardet, helped to position the Frenchman in the race leader's group, though Bardet was later distanced and lost time.
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Writing in his Giro Diary in the Irish Independent, Roche said he was in a group with his cousin Dan Martin (Israel Start Up Nation) before Martin pushed on from it as he tried to limit his time losses.
“The race into the nine-kilometre long opening section
was a bit like the Grand National, with everybody riding flat-out to the first
fence and hoping to get over it safely,” Roche said.
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“Our arrival onto the section was announced by plumes of
white dust thrown up by the lead cars and motorbikes and it must have been hard
to see for the guys right behind them.
“I wasn’t in the greatest position as we charged onto the
gravel and things didn’t improve much after that.
“Filippo Ganna of Ineos tore across the loose chippings
on the front of the peloton, cutting the breakaway’s advantage by five minutes
and splitting the peloton in half by the end of it.
“I exited the section in the second half of the split,
while Romain Bardet had Jai Hindley to help him in the front half.”
Dan Martin and Davide Formolo (UAE Team Emirates) were the only significant general classification riders to miss the race leader’s group when it formed on the first section of gravel. Roche said both were with him for a time before they went ahead on one of the drags, which he said were very hard.
“When our mechanics insisted on putting a 36-tooth front
chainring on our bikes this morning I thought they were joking but by the time
we hit the long 17pc drags at the end of the stage, I was glad they did,”
Roche added.
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