Irishman looking for early moves
Nicolas Roche has vowed to fight back after losing a chunk of time on Saturday, saying that he will ride aggressively in the remaining days of the Tour de France. The Irish Ag2r La Mondiale rider had been sitting 11th overall until the stage to Plateau de Beille, but blew up in the tough finale and finished 33rd, six minutes 47 seconds back. That dropped him down to 18th overall, and has prompted a decision to ride less cautiously for the remainder of the race.
“I was really disappointed, really p*ssed off,” he told VeloNation this evening. “There’s not much I can do about it…I think it was down to everything accumulating, including tiredness.”
Roche is currently ten minutes 56 seconds behind the overall leader Thomas Voeckler, and has decided to change his approach. “There’ll be no tactics…I’ll just see how it goes, day after day,” he said. “It’s all mountain stages ahead. I will just fight every day and try to get into the break on one of the stages.”
Roche was second and fourth (later upgraded to third when Mikel Astarloza was disqualified for doping) on stages of the 2009 race, and one year previously finished a very close second on the 18th stage of the Tour of Spain. The latter result also moved him right up the general classification in the race, helping him finish thirteenth in Madrid.
“I did it in the 2008 Vuelta a España (Tour of Spain), so will try that again,” he said, thinking back to that race. “I got clear then, gained time, and moved back up the general classification. It might be possible to get some time back.”
While his form is not as good as last year due to injury this season, including a bad fall in last month’s Critérium du Dauphiné, he knows that slipping down the general classification could give him a certain amount of leeway. So too the tight GC battle, which he and other ambitious riders will hope will distract the overall contenders and enable those not in the running for yellow to slip away.
He finished 20th on today’s stage to Montpellier, crossing the line in the same time as the winner Mark Cavendish. Tomorrow’s rest day will give him a chance to try to build some energy and motivate himself for what he intends to be an ambitious final week of the race.