Nicolas Roche’s first big goal of the new season Paris-Nice has begun with the Irishman losing 41 seconds in the prologue TT to finish halfway down the field.
However, he still beat many of the big favourites in the 9.4km test that featured a third category climb; with the likes of Ivan Basso, the Schleck brothers, Damiano Cunego and Thomas Voeckler all behind him.
Notably, Roche’s team mate Jean-Christophe Peraud – who has pushed the Irishman for team leader status at Ag2r over the past 12 months – lost nine seconds to Roche despite being regarded as a good tester and having been French champion against the clock.
Roche said after today’s effort that he was “not satisfied at all”. But with a week full of stages ahead of him he was not despondent.
It was in Paris-Nice last year that Roche’s 2011 season got off to a bad start only for that to grow into a crash-hit year that was arguably his most troubled since turning professional.
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In this race twelve months ago, Roche ran out of legs on the penultimate stage and abandoned; his preparation having been hit with injury.
He then went on to have a number of crashes at inopportune moments and had a poor year before rescuing it somewhat with an exciting stage win at the Tour of Beijing.
He will be looking to come out of this week’s racing in better shape than in 2011 and will undoubtedly be hoping for some results by the time it finishes on Nice seafront next Sunday.
Today’s stage was won by Swedish TT specialist Gustav Larsson (Vacansoleil), who beat Britain’s Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky) by just one second. Wiggins looked in great form and had the misfortune of being off late in the running order when the heavens opened.
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Last year’s Paris-Nice winner and current world TT champion, Tony Martin (Omega Pharma-Quickstep) had a poor day only managing 28th place, some 25 seconds down on Larsson.
Tomorrow’s first road stage of the race is a 185.5km mainly flat run into Orleans, with just one climb – a third cat – to be negotiated just before the halfway mark.
Prologue TT 9.4km: Dampierre-en-Yvelines - Saint-Rémy-lès-Chevreuse
1 Gustav Larsson (Swe) Vacansoleil-DCM 11:19
2 Bradley Wiggins (GBr) Sky Procycling at 1sec
3 Levi Leipheimer (USA) Omega Pharma-Quick Step at 4secs
4 Tejay Van Garderen (USA) BMC Racing Team at 9secs
5 Thomas De Gendt (Bel) Vacansoleil-DCM at 12secs
6 Sylvain Chavanel (Fra) Omega Pharma-Quick Step same
7 Rein Taaramae (Est) Cofidis Le Credit En Ligne at 13secs
8 Markel Irizar Aranburu (Spa) RadioShack-Nissan same
9 Rémi Pauriol (Fra) FDJ-Bigmat at 15 secs
10 Jerome Coppel (Fra) Saur-Sojasun same
80 Nicolas Roche (Irl) Ag2R La Mondiale 41 secs
Selected others
11 Tom Boonen (Bel) Omega Pharma-Quick Step at 15 secs
14 Thor Hushovd (Nor) BMC Racing Team at 17secs
16 Richie Porte (Aus) Sky Procycling same
18 Taylor Phinney (USA) BMC Racing Team at 19secs
28 Tony Martin (Ger) Omega Pharma-Quick Step at 25secs
32 Geraint Thomas (GBr) Sky Procycling at 26secs
40 Luis Leon Sanchez Gil (Spa) Rabobank Cycling Team at 29secs
41 Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar Team at 30secs
60 Andreas Klöden (Ger) RadioShack-Nissan at 36secs
80 Nicolas Roche (Irl) Ag2R La Mondiale at 41secs
86 Denis Menchov (Rus) Katusha Team at 42secs
90 Ivan Basso (Ita) Liquigas-Cannondale at 43secs
108 Jean-Christophe Peraud (Fra) Ag2R La Mondiale at 50secs
121 Fränk Schleck (Lux) RadioShack-Nissan at 54secs
132 Damiano Cunego (Ita) Lampre - ISD at 57secs
135 Thomas Voeckler (Fra) Team Europcar at 58secs
142 Andy Schleck (Lux) RadioShack-Nissan at 1:01
(176 riders)
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