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Dan Martin and Nicolas Roche safe into Paris
They rode very different races on Tour de France 2017, but Dan Martin and Nicolas Roche had one thing in common; they provided Irish fans with plenty of entertainment.
Roche went into the race among a BMC Racing team that was all geared around Richie Porte.
And when the Australian crashed out at the end of the opening week, the team was clearly shell shocked for a day or two.
However, they regrouped and switched their focus to trying to secure a stage win.
It would evade them, despite being aggressive day after day. Roche was up the road many times.
Ironically his best placing in the race came the day before team leader Porte crashed out.
Roche got up the road on stage 8 into Station des Rousses and would finish 4th; the day won by Lilian Calmejane (Direct Energie).
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Two days later he would finish 6th on stage 15 into Le Puy-en-Velay; Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo) prevailing with a lone effort from the breakaway.
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Nicolas Roche and Dan Martin have given the Irish plenty to root for over the last three weeks (Photos: BMC Racing, QuickStep and Jennifer Lafarge)
However, while Roche would ultimately come up short, he has shown some very strong form.
And as a rider that needs lots of hard racing to hit top form, he can now have a very good remainder of the 2017 campaign.
For Dan Martin, this Tour de France was something of a breakthrough.
He was 9th last year and his 6th place this time – 4:42 down on champion Chris Froome (Team Sky) - appears like a slight nudging forward on 12 months ago.
The reality is that he was one of the very best riders in the race this year. And he was the most aggressive of the general classification men.
He would lose 1:15 to his GC rivals on stage 9; coming down in the same crash as Porte.
But for the next week he would gradually get back a lot of that time with clever and aggressive late efforts.
In the last week of the race he perhaps paid for that activity. His team sprinter and other team mates also fell ill and got left behind last Wednesday.
It was a stage where they may have come to the fore in the crosswinds later in the day had things gone their way. Instead, Martin was exposed and lost 51 seconds to all of his rivals.
When further time losses followed the next day; Martin settled into 6th as his final placing.
It was a very strong performance throughout and one he feels he can improve on. He has said he believes he can win the race.
And his eight top 10 placings in 21 stages – including a 2nd and 3rd – underline his strength through the three weeks.
Today into Paris Dan Martin finished 84th and Nicolas Roche 75th; the stage won by Dylan Groenewegen (LottoNL-Jumbo).
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