Roche felt the breakaway he got clear in was comprised of strong riders from the bigger nations and he was surprised when those he was with would not ride (Photo: Sean Rowe)
By Brian Canty
In Ponferrada
Nicolas Roche admitted he felt “wrecked” and was looking forward to a break after he battled bravely to 26th place in dreadful conditions in the men’s elite road race at the World Championships in Spain yesterday.
The Tinkoff-Saxo man was in a 21-man group that crossed the line seven seconds behind winner Michal Kwiatkowski following six and a half hours and 254-gruelling kilometres in the saddle; one of the longest races on the UCI calendar.
“I’m wrecked, it’s good that’s the season’s over,” a relieved Roche told stickybottle.
“It’s been a long season, a lot of race days; injuries, fighting back, crashing, winning, fighting back again. It’s been quite an intense season so I’m looking forward to (resting).
Advertisement
“I still want to ride my bike and I’m racing a criterium in Japan on October 25th. So I want to continue riding my bike."
Roche at the Irish team vehicles about to hit the road to start what is one of the longest races of the year (Photo: Sean Rowe)
Yesterday’s race was Roche’s third in a week and followed last Sunday’s team time-trial and Wednesday’s individual time-trial. But he wasn’t just going to sit in the bunch and instead tried to get away in a move with five laps to go which initially looked promising.
“I saw Purito (Joaquim Rodriguez) go and there were three Spaniards and three Italians there,” he said of the move.
“I knew we’d get caught but maybe there’d be only 20 guys coming from behind and we have a little group? But that didn’t happen at all and we were caught 7k later.
“Everyone just stopped (riding) and I thought ‘what’s the point of attacking?’. There were French, Germans, two or three Belgians, it was strange. But that’s a bike race.
Related News
“It just didn’t happen and once that was caught I went back into staying in the group and making sure everything was fine.”
Coming through the start-finish area after the heavens had opened; all of the riders looked shattered towards the end (Photo: Sean Rowe)
The last few laps saw a number of riders shelled out the back and in fact only 95 finished, the last of whom was over 20 minutes back.
“The last two laps were really tough and it was a case of putting the grimace on and hanging on and hoping,” he said.
“I really didn’t want to drop out of that first group. If there was going to be 30 of us I’d have taken 30th place in it. I just wanted to finish in that first group, it was hard.
“I think I stayed right in the last four or five guys at the back. It was a super-fast descent (to the finish) and I never moved up.”
Roche will be in Ireland next Sunday for the Nicolas Roche Classic sportive in Midleton, where he said everyone was welcome and where he was looking forward to meeting many of the Irish people who have supported him this year.
“It’s very different, those events; just pedalling and enjoying the ride and talking to people rather than racing. I think at this stage I’ve had enough of putting a number on my bike and I want to pedal to relax so I’m really looking forward to spending that time in Midleton and relaxing with Irish cyclists and fans.”
Topics
