Nicolas Roche on the road in Spain today; racing against the clock in the green of Ireland at the World Championships (Photo: Sean Rowe)
By Brian Canty
Ireland’s Nicolas Roche has finished in 41st place in the elite men’s time trial at the World Championships in Ponferrada, Spain, this afternoon.
The Tinkoff-Saxo man competing for Ireland clocked a time of 1:00.15 for the 47 kilometre race against the clock in glorious conditions; 3:50.39 behind winner Bradley Wiggins.
The Briton set a blistering time of 56:25.52 for what was his first ever gold medal on the road at the World Championships.
The Team Sky superstar won by 26 seconds from three-time winner Tony Martin (Germany) in second with Dutchman Tom Dumoulin rounding out the podium a further 14 seconds back.
Wiggins is now World, Olympic and British TT champion.
Advertisement
Bradley Wiggins on his way to the world title today. He adds it to his Olympic and British TT crowns (Photo: Sirotti)
Roche had targeted a top 20 today and having taken 13th last year in Florence he had reason to be optimistic.
But he told stickybottle before the event he was feeling tired after last Sunday’s team time-trial while the recent Tour of Britain also left him feeling below par.
The Irishman never looked like going inside the top 20 today and appeared to labour on the difficult course, which had two significant climbs and reached a maximum gradient of 10 per cent in the final third.
Related News
With 64 starters in the strong field, Roche was the 34th rider off and never really featured at any of the three time checks at 12.2km, 23.2km and 35.2km on the way to the finish in Ponferrada.
Roche looks great in the TT position but put in a performance that he will not linger on for too long (Photo: Sean Rowe)
The day belonged to Wiggins who scorched around the course. And though he was behind Martin by four seconds at the first time-check, he soon made up for that and was fastest through checkpoint two; with Martin two seconds in arrears and Australian Rohan Dennis at seven seconds.
Many felt that for Martin to win today he would need a lead on Wiggins going into the latter portion of the race, given the advantage Wiggins has when it comes to climbing.
The final time check confirmed as much when Wiggins stretched his lead to 12 seconds. The downhill run to the finish would have favoured a heavier rider like Martin, but Wiggins had the title sewn up at that stage.
We will have reaction from Roche later.
Next up for the Irish is Josie Knight in Friday’s junior women’s road race and that will be followed by the U23 men’s road race where Conor Dunne, Ryan Mullen and Jack Wilson will aim to add another medal to Mullen’s super silver in Monday’s U23 time-trial.
The elite men's podium; former champion Tony Martin of Germany with silver, Bradley Wiggins with gold and the rainbow bands and 23-year-old Tom Dumoulin of Holland with bronze (Photo: Sirotti)
Topics
