Vuelta winner Simon Yates was seen protesting with the crew on a TV moto. And now Nicolas Roche has said he experienced first-hand the motos getting too close and how it unfairly impacted the racing (Photo: Chris Auld)
Nicolas Roche has said the role played by race motorbikes at the Vuelta was the worst he had seen.
He explained that when he was on the attack on Saturday’s penultimate stage he suddenly felt the pace in the breakaway go up.
When he looked to the front of the group, the first riders on the road were benefiting from the slipstream of the motos.
Race leader, and now the 2018 champion, Simon Yates could also be seen during the stage protesting and waving a race moto on.
He believed it was assisting the effort on the front of his group by Astana, the team of his rival Miguel Angel Lopez.
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Nicolas Roche was in no doubt that the issue of motorbikes getting too close to the riders and influencing the racing was acute on this edition of the Vuelta.
He said early on Saturday’s stage when he was in a 15-man breakaway, which also featured Michal Kwiatkowski (Team Sky), he really noticed it.
Kwiatkowski was on the front of the group with team mate David de la Cruz. Rafal Majka (Bora-hansgrohe) was also close to the front, followed by Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo) and then Roche.
“I was on Mollema’s wheel when the pace suddenly increased and looked up to see the front four pulling clear in the slipstream of the TV motorbike,” he said in his Irish Independent Vuelta Diary.
“Nelson Oliveira and I shouted and gestured at it to move off,” he said adding Dario Cataldo and Omar Fraile sat up to help Astana’s team leader Miguel Angel Lopez attacking back the road.
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“Most cyclists have used mopeds for motor-paced training at some stage and know how much faster you can ride in the slip stream of one."
Race motos worse this year than before
Roche continued: “This Vuelta has been the worst race for TV motorbikes riding too close and affecting the race. We’ve all complained but they just don’t care.
“Maybe we should put different jerseys on the cameramen, connect them to our team radios and just have a drag race behind them.”
He said he later learned of Yates protesting about motorbikes on the front of his group.
Nicolas Roche added the motorbikes had aided Astana to catch his breakaway on Saturday.
And all he and Oliveira could do when the Astana train “flew past” them was shake their heads.
The Irish rider has now revealed he will ride the Tour of Turkey after the World Championships in Innsbruck.
Astana took the fight to Yates on Saturday's stage, and the man in the leader's red jersey could be seen on TV protesting and waving on the TV moto.
Yates rode like a motorbike for much of the race. His attacking while leading the Vuelta was a real antidote to some of the radio-controlled racing we have seen in recent years.
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