Nicolas Roche has said he will try to take one of the three chances he is faced with for stage glory in the remaining days of the Giro, but admits he's above his ideal race weight and not climbing as well as he'd like.
Nicolas Roche has said he’ll do all he can to try and contend for a stage win in in the remaining week of the Giro – but admits to being below par.
The Team Sky rider got up the road last Saturday before fading late on.
But after today’s third rest day he’s hoping to take one of three chances he reckons he’s got remaining.
“The mood on the team is okay,” he said. “But it was a big blow losing (Mikel) Landa to illness last week.
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“We refocused our aims to chase stages and it has worked for Mikel Nieve.
“We have three more days to really fight for stages so my motivation is good and at this point we all have an open chance to go and chase a stage.
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“The next three mountain stages have some very hard climbs but I must try.”
Roche admitted he’s not climbing the way he hoped he would but he feels good on the shorter climbs.
“The trouble is, there aren’t many of those in the Giro! I still lack the top-end to follow the best and I’m still a bit heavy also.
“But doing the Giro will help me for the future; I know I always have my better months in the summer heat so I’m confident of performing even better in the next months.”
The Giro resumes tomorrow after a rest day today and the riders tackle a relatively short 132-kilometre trek from Bressanone to Brixen-Andalo.
There are three category one climbs along the way including a summit finish which should see a shake-up in the fight for the pink jersey.
Dutchman Steven Kruijswink (LottoNL-Jumbo) still leads by 2:12 from Esteban Chaves (Orica-GreenEDGE) with Vincenzi Nibali (Astana) at 2:51.
Roche and Philip Deignan are 39:40 and 2:24:07 down overall.
