Nicolas Roche got his Giro d'Italia underway and recorded a really good time, going just 30 seconds slower than stage winner and time-trial specialist Tom Dumoulin of Giant-Alpecin. It will be very interesting to see how Roche fares these next few weeks, given his illness-interrupted winter but subsequent training block at altitude.
By Brian Canty
Nicolas Roche has finished 32nd on today’s opening stage of Giro d’Italia, 30 seconds behind winner and the first leader of this year’s race, Tom Dumoulin of Giant-Alpecin.
The Dutch rider set a blistering time of 11:03 for the 9.8-kilometre individual time-trial which started and finished in the Dutch city of Apeldoorn.
The only other Irishman in the race was Philip Deignan and he was 107th, 50 seconds down on Dumoulin.
Neither will be at all concerned by those results as their respective jobs will be to protect the interests of team leader Mikel Landa this next three weeks.
Advertisement
Philip Deignan during his test in Holland where he got his 2016 Giro d'Italia underway for Team Sky (Photo: Sirotti)
As well as that, Roche told stickybottle this morning from the Netherlands that he hadn’t done much work on the time-trial bike in advance of today as he was only told he’d be doing the race six weeks ago.
Instead he opted to train in the mountains in Italy as opposed to refining his aero position.
Related News
Still, it's an encouraging start by Roche who said he could get opportunities for himself if Landa happens to fall out of contention for the overall.
It's also not beyond the bounds of possibility that Roche could end up leading their GC charge.
Landa was 67th on the stage and is 40 seconds behind the aforementioned Dumoulin.
Tomorrow’s stage takes the riders on a flat 190-kilometre stage from Arnheim to Nijmegen where a bunch sprint is the expected outcome.
jj
Nicolas Roche is clearly in great form of late; let's see what happens over the course of the next three weeks. It should be very interesting. Above, Roche puts the head down in Holland today (Photo: Sirotti)
Topics
