Nicolas Roche & Rohan Dennis are best in Swiss 5 eRace - video | Sticky Bottle

*Nicolas Roche looks like he buried himself during today's eRacing and also clearly hasn't been tucking into burgers and chips too often while in lock-down*

Nicolas Roche has added to his 3rd place at the recent
virtual Tour of Flanders with a runner’s up placing today in the opening round
of the Digital Swiss 5.

The event was won by Rohan Dennis; the Team Ineos rider
and world TT champion living up to his pre-race favourite tag.

And rounding out the podium on the day was young
Australian James Whelan of EF Pro Cycling; the 23-year-old who won the U23 Tour
of Flanders two years ago.

The series is a virtual Tour de Suisse, one of the races
called off due to the Covid19-related suspension of all racing.

All sixteen WorldTour teams put three riders forward to
race today as well as a Swiss national team; today’s stage taking the riders on
a 26.6km course featuring two climbs between Agarn and Leukerbad.

Whelan went into
an early lead with Luke Durbridge (Mitchelton-Scott) before another two
Australians, Dennis and Cameron Wurf of Team Ineos, set out after them.

Dennis eventually
overhauled the two leaders and went on to win. Roche came through the strongest
of the rest, picking off Whelan, Durbridge and Wurf as well as distancing
riders like Remco Evenepoel (Deceuninck-QuickStep).

At the finish Dennis had 1:10 on Roche, with Whelan a further 18 seconds back. Roche’s Team Sunweb team mate Chris Hamilton was 4th at 1:39 with Ben O’Connor (NTT Pro Cycling) in 5th at 2:04, results below.

🗣"Oh, ouch."😬

There's no arguing @nicholasroche went deep to finish in 2nd at Race 1 of the #DigitalSwiss5🇨🇭 today.👊🏻

What an effort!💪🏻 #KeepChallenging pic.twitter.com/nOnvcH3ahS

— Team Picnic PostNL Raisin (@picnicpostnl) April 22, 2020

“Today was pretty tough, very solid. And again, I really
committed,” Roche said, a reference to his recent 3rd place in the Tour of
Flanders virtual edition.

“It was a mental battle at some points. Halfway through
there was six or seven of us within 100 metres.

“I was really trying to focus; looking at the watts of
the riders behind and trying to focus on what they were doing and not dropping
mine.

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“You have all that information about what the other
riders are doing in terms of watts, so it’s all about focusing on your effort
and trying to see what’s behind and in front.

“I was a long time behind James Whelan and I was really
focusing, I could see when he was dropping a little bit and then I was trying
to push it a bit.

“And then I pressed a little too hard, though it ended up
being the right thing to do, on that last bit of the second climb.

“Then about 500 metres to the top I could clearly see he
was trying to come back at me and I was afraid I may have pushed a bit too
early.

“But I had opened up enough of a gap to make it to the
finish. Rohan was always going to be the favourite and it was no surprise that
he won.”

Roche said while he was pleased to ride well in the
virtual races, he was not losing sight of the fact the races were virtual. But
he believed approaching virtual racing “as a laugh” would be a waste of any
rider’s time.

He added that riding a virtual race took a certain effort
and frame of mind and that taking it seriously for himself, and performing for
the team, was a good mindset going into the events.

“It’s about commitment and stamina and not letting go and
wanting to suffer. Not everyone wants to suffer on an ergo, I understand,” he
said.

“And the cycling superstars are not in the mood to suffer
or to play the game. But I like to commit. I think it’s important for the team.

“I’ve been doing quite a lot of training, it’s not a
secret, I post all the time about my training and I’ve done quite a few of these
online races.

“Even during the week, I do a few on Zwift and I think it’s
a question of habit and training it; it’s really a 45 to 50 minute effort and
it’s quite different to the action we see on the roads.

“Obviously I’m in good condition as well and I haven’t
backed off my training, I’ve kept focus. I’m still building up for the summer,
whatever happens.

“If there’s some races, then well and good. If there’s
not, then I’ll just be fit I guess,” he laughed.

Roche added he was trying to get a steady workload done on the home trainer and while some riders were only doing light training, or claiming to, he had always preferred to work hard on the bike and was not changing his habits in lock-down.