Roche falls just short of maiden Tour stage victory

Nicolas Roche came agonisingly close to winning his first ever stage of the Tour de France yesterday but was overhauled in the closing metres before the finishing line in Brive-la-Gaillarde by Team Sky’s fast-man Mark Cavendish.

Roche, aiming to break into the top 10 overall and take Ireland’s first stage win in the race for 20 years, launched an audacious attack from nine kilometres out to jump across to a small breakaway group that had been up the road for most of the day.

The Irish rider had Andrea Kloden (Radioshack-Nissan) and Luis Leon Sanchez (Rabobank) in his slipstream but neither appeared too keen on sharing the workload in forging a meaningful gap to the peloton behind.

So he attacked on a slight incline with three kilometres to go and split the group he was in, but with Bradley Wiggins drilling the pace behind to tee up team-mate Cavendish, the Isle of Man sprinter came around Roche. Matt Goss (Orica Green Edge) took second with green jersey wearer Peter Sagan (Liquigas Cannondale) in third, followed by Sanchez in fourth.

It was another terrific ride by the battling Irishman ahead of the last big push in today’s 51 kilometre individual time trial to try and move up from 11th overall into the top 10. Roche needs to go 69 seconds quicker than the rider in front of him, Thibaut Pinot (FDJ-Big Mat) while not having his time bettered by any of those behind him.

Dan Martin had another good performance yesterday and tried in vain to set up his team’s sprinter Tyler Farrar for the win. Martin hit the front with two kilometres to go with Farrar in tow but the American could only manage sixth on the stage while Martin remains 36th on GC.

Cavendish, who moved level on 22 stage wins in the Tour beside Lance Armstrong said, “It would’ve been easy for my guys to cruise in to Paris now after the mountains.

“I was like ‘Can I have a sprint, please? Just let me have a sprint’. Then Brad (Wiggins) piped up and said ‘yes, we’ll work for a sprint’.

“It’s been great to be part of the team, what they’re doing this year, but it obviously puts me in a difficult situation. I’m part of the team, but I’m not doing what I can do as an individual rider.”

The race’s penultimate stage today is a 51 kilometre individual test against the clock from Bonneval to Chartres and is unlikely to see an upheaval at the top of the overall standings.