Nicolas Roche was Ireland’s sole finisher at the World Championships in Imola yesterday, coming home just outside the top 50 on a very tough course.
Roche went into the 258km race, nine laps of a hilly course with the start and finish on the Imola motor racing track, on a three-man Irish team with Ryan Mullen and Ben Healy.
Mullen (26) was the first of the Irish riders to abandon; the amount of climbing on the course not suited to such a big and powerful rider.
Healy (20), who was making his debut at this level, lasted in the race until close to the 200km marker before being tailed off the peloton and abandoning, though he gave a good account of himself.
Nicolas Roche lasted in the front group until the penultimate lap when the intensity in the racing was ramped up and he eventually finished in 51st place.
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The 36-year-old Irish rider, who finished the Tour de France just last weekend, finished in a small group 10:32 down on winner and new world champion Julian Alaphilippe of France.
“I think I rode a pretty decent race, just the legs let me go in the finish,” Roche said of an event that gradually wore down the field before the strong nations ramped up the pace in the last 1½ hours of racing.
“I was always up the front,” added Roche. “Ben (Healy) was around me for quite a long time and I just faded near the finish when the race really, really started. I was just a little bit short.”
Roche added while he wasn’t exactly happy with his TT and road race rides at these Worlds, he had applied himself as well as he could.
“Happy is not the right word. But I committed. A lot of times in the worlds I’ve made mistakes with positioning,” he said.
“Today my positioning was really there. I really focused on being near the front and not letting anything happen. It’s a strong bunch and I just didn’t have the legs in the end.”
The bunch had been whittled down to a group of about 30 as the riders tackled the hardest climb on the ninth and final lap after Tour de France winner Tadej Pogačar (Slovenia) had attacked second last time up the climb but been reeled in after a lap leading solo.
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On the steepest section of the Cima Gallisterna climb, the final ascent of the race, a very strong group of six formed at the front, Alaphilippe attacking from it.
The French rider made his move very close to the top of the climb and despite the quality of those he was with none of his rivals was able to hold his wheel.
He didn’t pull out a gap of much more than 10 seconds for a long time over the five in pursuit; Marc Hirschi (Switzerland), Jakob Fuglsang (Denmark), Primoz Roglic (Slovenia), Wout van Aert (Belgium) and former work champion Michał Kwiatkowski (Poland).
There was 17km to go to the finish with Alaphilippe made
his move, with Hirschi and Kwiatkowski having put in more modest digs on the
climb before the eventual winner went with a more nuclear effort.
Initially when Alaphilippe pulled clear the group behind
became organised in riding together after him. However, with such a quality
sprinter like van Aert in the group, the others were understandably reluctant
to commit too much.
Every time unity in the chase looked like it was gaining a foothold somebody in the group would miss a turn on the front and that lack of commitment proved contagious; all playing into the hands of the lone leader.
Though the gold medal was in the balance for a long time
after the final climb was dealt with, as the finish neared Alaphilippe’s gap
got bigger.
And even though he took plenty of time to celebrate an
incredible victory, his winning margin on the line was 24 seconds over van Aert,
who demolished the sprint for the silver medal.
Hirschi, the 22-year-old who won the U23 world title just
two years ago, looked very strong during the final lap and deservedly took the
bronze, just getting the better of Kwiatkowski.
And just behind those two, in 5th place, came Fuglsang,
the only rider in the top six who had not ridden the Tour de France. Roglic
brought up the rear of the five-man chasing group for 6th place.
Some 29 seconds after the chase group, Michael Matthews
of Australia sprinted in at the head of the next group on the road for 7th
place.
He was just ahead of Alejandro Valverde (Spain) in 8th, Max Schachmann (Germany) in 9th and Damiano Caruso, who rounded out the top 10 for the host nation Italy.
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