Here's a great little video highlights film of Nicolas Roche's 2013 season, produced by Maria Griffin who brought us another great clip of Dan Martin's season a few days ago.
It was Roche's first year with Saxo-Tinkoff, having moved there from Ag2r.
It was in some ways a risky move; relinquishing his automatic team leader's status at the French outfit to go to a team with a clear leader in the shape of Alberto Contador.
Despite the early season not going according to plan, after he gained weight due to a new diet the team put him on and perhaps over trained during the off season, Roche rode very strongly at the Tour de France in support of Contador and was in top form after it.
He was 5th in the San Sebastian Classic, his first big race after the Tour.
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And in the Vuelta a Espana in August-September - where he got his chance to lead the team - he won stage 2 and took the overall leader on stage 8.
He would also wear every classification leader's jersey on the race before finally finishing 5th overall.
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This great little film captures all of the high points; well worth a look.
Wearing the climbers' jersey in the crucial Vuelta TT, Roche took a fantastic 6th on the stage which went a huge part of the way to securing his final 5th overall.
Roche was delighted to seize the Vuelta overall leader's jersey on stage 8, and while he would lose it the next day by just one second he rode with a renewed confidence during the three weeks in Spain.
Roche had waited a long time for a big win, and when it came on stage 2 of the Vuelta he enjoyed the moment.
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