Nicolas Roche to miss national champs; says he needs to rest before Tour de France

Nicolas Roche in the Irish national champion's jersey at Paris-Nice in 2010; he is out of the race for the title this year.

By Gerard Cromwell

Nicolas Roche will skip the National Road Race Championships in Mullingar on Sunday week, preferring to recover from this weekend's racing and check out the cobbled stages of the Tour de France with his Tinkoff-Saxo team instead of flying to Ireland to race.

Roche won the title in Dunboyne in 2009 but, like his cousin and 2008 winner Dan Martin, he skipped the event in Carlingford, Co Louth, last year to train with his Tinkoff-Saxo team ahead of the Tour de France.

After ending the recent Giro d'Italia with fourth place on the brutal climb to Monte Zoncolon on the penultimate stage, Roche spent the last week or so training at altitude in Livigno with his team and will return to action on Friday at the three-day Route du Sud in France.

"I haven't spent much time at home at all this year between training camps and racing," he told stickybottle.

"And with the Route du Sud this weekend and then the Tour reconnaissance before the Tour starts; I just think it's too much traveling. I feel I need to recover and then get ready for the Tour.

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"Apart from last year, I've been at every championship for the last eight years so it was a hard decision to make but after the Giro, the training camp and Route du Sud at the weekend, I think I will need time to recover and rest before the Tour. And unfortunately that means missing the championships."

The Route du Sud begins with a 172 stage from Lectoure to Payolle featuring a third category summit finish.

Ironically Dan Martin's first ever professional victory came at the mountainous Route du Sud a week before his national championships victory in 2008.

An injury interrupted off season and bad crash during the Giro meant Roche did not contend for the overall as he had hoped, though he went on the attack a number of times. Seen here battling the gradient and cold conditions on stage 16 from Ponte di Legno to Val Martello (Photo: Sirotti)