Two years after he first won the race, Nicolas Roche will line out in Scotstown, Monaghan today to try to reclaim the white and green jersey of Irish road race champion. The Ag2r La Mondiale rider has set the target as one of his big goals of the season, but admits that his chances have been affected by a bad crash he had recently in the Critérium du Dauphiné.
“I had to take five days completely off before starting training again…I knew it was going to take a while, but it is taking a lot longer than I was hoping it would take,” he told VeloNation this week.
“It has definitely set me back. Five days is a lot. There is nothing I could do, I was just waiting for my cuts to close and bruises to heal. There is nothing broken, but it is just patience, patience, patience. I have been to the physio every single day since I am back. We have used laser work and everything to try to help it.”
Roche showed good form in the Dauphiné, placing fifth on the first mountain stage and set himself the goal of a top eight finish overall. He also wanted to take a top five placing on one of the three mountain stages which ended the race but the first of those, the race to Les Gets, turned out very differently than what he expected.
Clipping another rider on a descent, the Irishman hit the deck inside the final 25 kilometres and lost several minutes due to the trauma of the crash. He remounted and continued on to the finish, but crossed the line a full 25 minutes 6 seconds to stage winner Christophe Kern (Europcar).
“I am literally cut from my ankle up to my chin…going from shin all the way up to the hip, all the ribs, under the armpit, the arm, my fingers…they are all open,” he said the following day.
After taking five days off training, Roche managed to check out several of the Pyrenean climbs since then. He’s been able to get in some good kilometres, but accepts that his form is not as it would otherwise have been. Still, he’s not writing off his hopes of taking the jersey today.
“It definitely is going to affect me more for the nationals…that is one hundred percent sure,” he said. “But on the other hand, I am taking the choice to come here anyway to the nationals to try and do my best there. I think that if I wasn’t half convinced, I would stay at home here and not be bothered coming over.
“I am keeping in mind that this year that maybe I will just try and ride smart, it might work. To use the head more. I have no choice anyway…that’s what I’ll have to do
“I heard the course is pretty draggy, so I think it is going to be pretty open. Daniel [Martin] has proven to be in top form again, so he definitely is a rider to watch. Dan is a rider who is capable of winning races as well, he is an important rider to keep in mind.”
Martin, his first cousin, won the Giro della Toscana last Sunday and is fired up to prove a point after being overlooked for Tour de France selection by his Garmin-Cervélo squad. Roche will also be up against two other ProTeam professionals, namely defending champion Matt Brammeier (HTC Highroad) and Philip Deignan (Team RadioShack). The An Post Grant Thornton M. Donnelly Sean Kelly team will also be riding, and will have the advantage of collective strength. Still, he’ll hope that things play out well for him and he can seize his chance.
Once the race is over, Roche will turn his thoughts towards the Tour de France. He is a little concerned by the disruption to his training, but hopes that he will click as the race goes on, finding his rhythm then. “That is the dream scenario, that in the next five or six days, even ten days, that the legs come back as they were in the Dauphine.
“When I do my training now, when I do my sprints or whatever, I don’t feel the best. But it’s the case that I don’t feel the best because of the crash, not because of the lack of training. I am just waiting for all the swelling to go down. I am pretty convinced that the form will come back pretty quick.
“It’s not like I am chasing fitness. For once, this time, the form was there. It is just the case that it should slowly but surely come back after the bruises go down.”