Nicolas Roche crosses the finish line today for his first ever professional stage race win, wrapping up overall victory at the three-day Route du Sud.
Having gone into today’s stage of the three-day Route du Sud with the leader’s jersey on his shoulders, Nicolas Roche has emerged victorious on a day when his Tinkoff-Saxo team were never seriously troubled.
"It was a magnificent feeling crossing the finish line taking my very first general classification win after three days of very hard racing,” a delighted Roche said after the finish.
“It was enjoyable experiencing my teammates so dedicated and determined to support me and of course, this is their victory as well.
“This was a confidence booster before taking on the Tour de France in a couple of weeks so obviously I'm looking forward to that."
Advertisement
The presence of Alejandro Valverde in second place overall this morning, 45 seconds down on yesterday’s stage 2 winning Irishman, meant the leader and his team needed to be on their toes on today’s final 179.4km trek from Saint-Gaudens to Castres
Related News
But with the main climb of the day coming too far from the finish to be in any way decisive in breaking the general classification contenders apart, Tinkoff-Saxo rode very well in mopping up the eight man early escape.
That move split into two small groups under the pressure of being out front and also the terrain. But with Roche’s squad intent on leaving nothing to chance to make sure they won, the breakaway never really stood a chance today.
In the end it was the Movistar team of Valverde that mixed it up in the run in to finish, with their Italian Adriano Malori attacking the bunch and surviving out front to take the stage victory by a few seconds.
But with Roche safely in the field he ran out overall winner in an event won by cousin Dan Martin of Garmin-Sharp back in 2008 and Roche’s father Stephen in 1985.
After winning alone by 45 seconds on the queen stage with a summit finish yesterday, Roche took the overall lead and the points jersey. He was also 4th on Friday's opening stage.
Topics
