Having targeted a top ten overall finish in Paris, Irish pro Nicolas Roche continued his move up the general classification yesterday when he went from thirteenth to tenth overall in the Tour de France. However Roche has admitted that he needs to raise his game in the days ahead if he is to hold onto a high placing in the race.
The Irishman suffered in the final kilometres of the climb of Luz Ardiden and slipped off the back of the general classification contenders, placing 17th across the line and dropping two minutes two seconds to the winner Samuel Sanchez (Euskaltel Euskadi). He conceded one minute 52 seconds to Frank Schleck (Leopard Trek), and twenty seconds less than that to Ivan Basso (Liquigas), Cadel Evans (BMC Racing Team) and Andy Schleck (Leopard Trek).
While Roche didn’t envisage scrapping with those riders, he did hope to finish closer to them. “If I lose two to three minutes each day, I am not going to be in the top ten for very long,” he admitted to VeloNation. “But hopefully things will keep improving. Last week I was really struggling to stay with the guys on the Mur de Bretagne, while today I was feeling a lot better in that respect.”
Apart from his disrupted preparation for the race due to crashes, he believes there’s a logical reason why the first mountain stage could be tough for him. “If I consider the fact that it is the first time that I have raced up a mountain like that since the Tour of Spain last year, it is not too bad, even if I was hoping that I was going to go a small bit better.
“In Paris-Nice I didn’t get to the climbs. There were no ten kilometre climbs in the Romandie. I didn’t see the climbs in Dauphine. It is the first time I am racing up a 15 kilometre climb in almost a full a year. It sounds strange, but it is true.”
While Roche was clearly disappointed to lose some time, he has said since the start of the Tour that he is playing catch-up due to the injury problems he has faced this year. Things seemed to be coming together in the Dauphiné, where he placed fifth on stage one, but he crashed in the first of the three mountain stages which concluded the race and was forced to pull out of the event. He missed five days’ on the bike as a result of his injuries.
He wants to perform better in the remaining mountain stages, and hopes that his form continues to improve. The Ag2r La Mondiale rider regards Saturday’s race to Plateau de Beille as the likely next decisive stage, believing that today’s race to Lourdes will not see big gaps. “I think a break will go. The climb is a long way from the finish and I think the general classification guys will be together at the end.”
If so, Roche will burn as little energy as he can, trying to remain as fresh as possible before the big grind up to the summit of Plateu de Beille. If he can perform more strongly there, he will feel more confident about racing into Paris in the top ten overall.