Nicolas Roche has said he was disappointed with his result on stage 12 of the Tour de France, saying he wanted more.
The Irish rider
was up the road, with a number of his team mates, in a 42-strong group. He
tried to follow the leading three riders on the final climb but was unable to.
Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) was among that three-man
group and he won the stage from Pello Bilbao (Astana) and Gregor Mühlberger
(Bora-hansgrohe).
Those three got clear on the 9.9km Horquette d’Ancizan.
And while Roche went after them he couldn’t hold them.
He then went over the top of the climb just behind them,
with a long descent into Bagnères-de-Bigorre for the finish.
Before he got to the finish line, Nicolas Roche was
caught by a chasing group, finishing in it and placing 15th on the day.
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“The team was amazing and they did a great job for me
today,” Roche said at the
finish.
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“We tried to control the race to make it so that the
breakaway arrived at the last climb together.
“I gave it
my all but I couldn’t follow the trio ahead although I was still in a good
position over the top of the climb.
“Near the bottom of the descent we got caught by the chasing group just before the finish. I’m of course disappointed with the result but we had a good race as a team today.”
Team Sunweb coach,
Aike Visbeek, said when the pace went
on up the final climb the strongest riders in the breakaway rode away.
“We had half of the team in the breakaway today, which
was good. Unfortunately Michael didn’t feel good and he communicated that early so we focused on Nico,” he said.
“We tried
to keep it together on the first climb so there wouldn’t be too much attacking,
as he is not an explosive climber.
“On the
last climb it was pretty honest and the three strongest guys were in front.
“It was
not hard enough behind on the descent and the chasing group then caught up. We
hoped for a better result today but we gave it an honest shot.”
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