Nicolas Roche will ride the Vuelta A Espana which starts with a team time-trial this Saturday. The Team Sky man will once again ride in support of Chris Froome but has hit out at the course for the opening stage, one he said posed a significant safety risk.
By Brian Canty
Ireland’s Nicolas Roche has branded the opening stage of this year’s Vuelta A Espana a “disgrace” and said it's going to be extremely dangerous for both the riders and anyone there to watch it.
The race starts on Saturday and the 7.4-kilometre track from the Andalucian town of Puerto Banus to Marbella will see the riders travel over sand, pedestrianised streets, marble flooring and even a boardwalk that Roche isn’t confident can support the weight of a car.
Advertisement
“The time trial course is a bit of a disgrace,” said the Team Sky rider.
“If it was a proper individual time-trial then you might get away with it but to put a full team of riders on that isn’t on.
“It’s one thing having a technical section but to not have 100 metres of normal time-trial road isn’t good enough.
“We go from a pier to a walkway, through restaurant passage ways, over a wooden bridge which we’re not even sure we can pass in the car…
Related News
“We go over a pedestrianized marble street, onto another sandy bit and because we’re going over the beach they put these plastic ramps so people can cross to the beach…
“There's pedestrian avenue which will be in between shops and restaurants…
“I know they want something spectacular but there’s no normal kilometre, I took a photo of the back wheel of my bike sinking in sand!” he said.
Roche continued while it mightn’t be safe for the team, it certainly won’t be safe for tourists who will be in the area either.
“We’ll be going full gas at times and we’re going through restaurants and the road is not closed; today we had to cycle through pedestrians.
“If we hit a kid it could be very dangerous.”
Topics
