Nicolas Roche lands national double

Nicolas Roche was crowned elite national road race champion, for the second time in his career, yesterday. His typically swashbuckling performance saw off the field in wretched conditions.

The Team Sky man added the road title to the time-trial crown he won on Thursday night, and he set his stall out from the drop of the flag, in Kilcullen, by attacking early, and often, to thin out the field.

By the end of the opening lap, his tactic had started to pay off, as the bunch began to lose men, while Roche himself escaped in a number of early moves.