Nicolas Roche is currently battling to get his condition back after a very long lay-off due to injury. However, he says he's determined to get it right and not rush himself.
By Gerard Cromwell
Nicolas Roche is “slowly but surely” finding his way back from a knee injury suffered during a pre-season activity camp with his Tinkoff Saxo team in Gran Canaria.
Having spent almost two months doing core work and other exercise, Roche got the go ahead to train again a couple of weeks ago when the squad arrived in Gran Canaria for another training stint.
“When I arrived at training camp I went for a second MRI and they told me the tear had healed which was good news,” he told stickybottle.
“I had to start training easy but at least I could start training. For the first week I started out with the guys but trained on my own when they went off to do their efforts on the climbs and the harder training.
Advertisement
“The last few days, once I got a bit of fitness back, I was able to train with them and do the same type of exercises as they were doing. I feel I can’t do power work yet.
“At high power and low cadence the knee is a bit sensitive but at high cadence it’s a lot better. I can’t do any sprints either so I’m kind of turning myself into a diesel engine at the moment but it just takes time.”
In an effort to get some more warm weather training in, Roche has opted to stay on in Gran Canaria longer than most of his teammates.
“I was going to stay until the 2nd but I’m going to stay until the 10th of February now, which will mean I’ve been here a bit over a month.
“At the moment Daniele Bennatti and Roman Kreuziger are here and Manuele Boaro only left a few days ago. Benna is staying until Sunday and Roman is staying until the 12th so it will be just me and him then.”
(Interview continues below advertisement)
The squad also unveiled the new, predominantly yellow, team kit on the island. And while Roche’s squad have a new owner in Russian businessman Oleg Tinkoff, there has been very little change as of yet.
Related News
“Apart from the new kit, nothing has changed much yet,” he says.
“Bjarne (Riis) is still the sporting manager and while we’ve had a lot of meetings about the future of the team and small details are going to change over the year, at the moment we’ve only had one training camp and there hasn’t been a revolution.
“I like the new kit. I had a look at some photos from the Tour Down Under and the jersey looks easy to pick out in the bunch, which is very important for the soigneurs when the whole bunch hits the feed zone. They only really see the shoulders.
“The new bike actually looks really well. It’s a kind of flashy blue with a bit of yellow on it as well. Roman is the only rider that has the bike with the new colours because they only brought one bike over for the photo shoot. We’ll get our racing bikes at the first race.”
Roche’s first competitive outing in the new kit comes at the Tour of Oman in just over two weeks time.
“I’ve never ridden Oman before but it’s supposed to be hillier and less windy than Qatar,” he says. “It might suit me better than Qatar but I won’t be ready to be challenging for anything by then.
“There’s no magic in cycling. I can’t expect to be almost ten weeks off the bike and then come back and win the first race. Okay, I rode for two weeks in the middle of those ten weeks but that’s not going to make any difference.
“Last year I was flying in January but that was also a mistake because I had a really hard time in April. It’s difficult to compare but I’m taking it much steadier now.
“There’s nothing worse than when you’ve had a break and then you go full gas in training. You get a high peak maybe but there’s nothing underneath it. I’m building the base nice and slowly but surely; doing a lot of hours and building up so that when I’m fit again I’ll be able to race.
“Like I say there’s no magic. I’m not rushing it and the team have been very supportive in that, taking the pressure off me for the first few races. I’ll take it step by step. There’s no point rushing. Nothing would be worse than getting a recurrent injury and then maybe having to sit out another few months.
“I have to get in shape obviously because it’s no fun going to races if you’re getting dropped every day but I won’t be going into Oman to win or with high ambitions. I’ll be there to get a bit of racing rhythm and give a hand to the team.
“I’ve no pressure for Oman. I’ll be doing my work for the team there and the same in Tirreno, and then planning towards the Giro. I have high hopes for the Giro. That’s my main focus.
“A lot of the guys have been in Ireland with different races, from the Rás as younger riders, to the Tour of Ireland or whatever.
“The early stages in Ireland are pretty much for sprinters though. If we had a finish up St Patrick’s Hill, maybe I could do something but I won’t be doing anything crazy in Ireland just to get on TV.
“I think we’re going to bring a team of climbers to the Giro so it’s going to be tough to get the jersey in the team time trial but the team has yet to be selected and it’s four months away so we have loads of time to think about it.”
Topics
