Thomas Voeckler (Direct Energie) and Nicolas Roche (Team Sky) came to the line in Scarborough to contest the final stage of the Tour de Yorkshire. The permutations were simple; the winner would take it all. Sadly, the Frenchman won the gallop and Roche had to be content with second on the stage and overall.
By Brian Canty
Nicolas Roche has taken his best result of the season this afternoon with second on the final stage of the Tour de Yorkshire before an enormous crowd.
The Irishman was only beaten by Thomas Vockler (Direct-Energie)in the gallop for the line along the seafront in Scarborough after a monstrous 198-kilometre stage from Middlesborough.
Roche will definitely be disappointed with the result as he did much of the pulling when the pair broke away from a small group with seven kilometres to go.
Advertisement
He beckoned the Frenchman to come through on a few occasions inside the final few kilometres but the latter refused and Roche was forced to lead out the sprint.
Voeckler took full advantage and gapped Roche with a sharp attack inside the final couple of hundred metres and he held on to take the stage and the overall.
Indeed, with both men locked on time, 16 seconds down on overnight leader Dylan Groenewegen (LottoNL-Jumbo), they knew the stage winner would win outright.
Related News
However, Roche has to take a lot of positives away from his result and more importantly, the performance.
He is most likely to start the Giro d’Italia next weekend as one of his team’s main riders and juding by the way he rode – and his rhythm on the bike, he can look ahead to the immediate future with huge confidence.
We’ll have more on this later, including how Conor Dunne (JLT-Condor Cycles) and young Michael O’Loughlin (Team WIGGINS) fared.
April 29th-May 1: Tour de Yorkshire
Stage 3: Middlesbrough - Scarborough (196km)
1 Thomas Voeckler (Fra) Direct Energie 5:51:57
2 Nicolas Roche (Irl) Team Sky
3 Adam Yates (GBr) Orica GreenEDGE 0:00:09
4 Anthony Turgis (Fra) Cofidis
5 Steven Kruijswijk (Ned) LottoNL-Jumbo
6 Lars Petter Nordhaug (Nor) Team Sky 0:00:41
7 Gianni Moscon (Ita) Team Sky
8 Christopher Juul Jensen (Den) Orica GreenEDGE 0:01:09
9 Ben Hermans (Bel) BMC Racing Team
10 Nikias Arndt (Ger) Giant-Alpecin
Final General Classification
1 Thomas Voeckler (Fra) Direct Energie 13:05:16
2 Nicolas Roche (Irl) Team Sky 0:00:06
3 Anthony Turgis (Fra) Cofidis, Solutions Crédits 0:00:16
4 Adam Yates (GBr) Orica GreenEDGE 0:00:17
5 Steven Kruijswijk (Ned) Team LottoNL - Jumbo 0:00:21
6 Lars Petter Nordhaug (Nor) Team Sky 0:00:52
7 Gianni Moscon(Ita) Team Sky 0:00:53
8 Nikias Arndt (Den) Team Giant - Alpecin 0:01:13
9 Serge Pauwels (Bel) Dimension Data 0:01:20
10 Dion Smith (NZl) One Pro Cycling 0:01:21
