Nicolas Roche has done it all on Le Tour, but still has unfinished business

Ireland's Nicolas Roche celebrates on the podium wearing the leader's red jersey after the fourth stage of the 2019 La Vuelta cycling tour of Spain

It’s a homecoming of sorts for Ireland's Nicolas Roche this weekend as he begins his 10th Tour de France in his adopted city of Nice on the Cote d'Azur.

His days of believing he could emulate his father Stephen's 1987 victory in the race may be over, but the 36-year-old still feels he has unfinished business in the sport's toughest event.

He's one of just three Irish riders on the start-list for the Covid-19-delayed three-week contest- Sam Bennett and Dan Martin the other two, and as his Team Sunweb's elder statesman, his role will be that of road captain or, 'guy-who-calls-the-shots'.

Ironically, it was back in Nice in 2009 where Roche's love affair with Le Tour began; he was riding for the top French team at the time, spoke the language fluently, was Irish national champion, and in his maiden voyage he had the distinction of protecting the yellow jersey of his then Ag2r La Mondiale teammate Rinaldo Nocentini.

“My first Tour de France was an amazing experience,” he recalled fondly.

“It started in Monaco, on my birthday, I was wearing the Irish national champion jersey, my family and friends were there and we defended the yellow jersey for eight days…plus I finished somewhere around top-20 on General Classification (22nd), so it was truly amazing.

“And that’s when I became obsessed with the Tour. I was 25 years old and I rode like a junior and I loved it. Later that year I had a great Vuelta, finishing sixth overall.

“For me, I was never going to win the mountain stages against (Andy) Schleck and (Alberto) Contador, and I wasn’t going to beat (Mark) Cavendish in a bunch sprint, but the thing I wanted was top-10 results in the Tour and I achieved that in my first year.” 

His dream of one day fighting for the yellow jersey burned for a few years, and only for a bad day late in the race in 2012 he'd have been inside the top 10.

But with the arrival of the all-conquering Team Sky around that time, Roche knew he had reached his limit as an overall contender and his focus quickly shifted to life as a domestique, the French word for servant in cycling parlance.

“I am proud I actually did it all,” Roche said, of his journey from GC rider to his current role as a stage hunter.

“I found my limits as a GC rider, I helped out on the world's best cycling team (Team Sky), I even managed to win a Tour as a teammate to four-time winner (Chris) Froome and now I am chasing stages but also supporting the sprinters.

“I find it all enriching. I gathered so much experience being actually able to do it all. What I do miss, however, is a stage win. I missed out by so little so many times. But this is the Tour, and it is so, so hard.” 

Indeed, if good judgement comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgement, then Roche is as prepared as anyone for this Tour.

And that in itself is quite an achievement in a sport that has seen an explosion of young talent in recent years.

Of the 176 competitors this year, only 10 are older than Roche, only four have started the race more times and only one rider has actually finished the race more than Roche. A testament to his longevity.

“Experience is absolutely key in the Tour. It is like turning professional all over again. There are new rules for the race, different tactics every year, but also my knowledge of the roads is one of my strongest assets.

“Look at the average age of each team. It's a lot higher than any other race. Why? Because the Tour is raced very differently to any other event. This is why it's special.

“The pressure is also high, the constant media, you never have one second to yourself. It takes a lot out of you and you need experience to manage that.” 

And that's even before a pedal is turned.

“Staying in shape is not the problem,” he continued. “It's getting there is the hard part.

“Training is different nowadays and for me, I know I must work a lot more on my 'explosivity'.

“I do lots more high-intensity workouts compared to before; 10-second sprints up to 3-5 minute efforts, with less of a focus on endurance.

“Having said that, I usually do 34-35,000 kilometres per year on the bike, and I've been doing that for over 10 years! So the training is different, not harder.

“I am as lean now as when I was riding GC in 2011, but I am almost 2kg heavier than I was then.” 

Roche, a four-time national champion and three-time Grand Tour stage winner, has always been fastidious about his training and even when Covid-19 curtailed his daily pilgrimage to the mountains north of Nice he maintained his devotion in solitude indoors instead.

“People were telling me I was crazy doing so many hours on the home trainer but for me, that was my occupation and my passion,” he recalled of his daily lockdown routine.

“I had nothing else to do. I have no pool to clean, no dog to walk, no kids to run after, so for me the home trainer was clearing four hours of the day rather than me sitting on the sofa watching episode 25 of some series on Netflix.

“I also really enjoyed the routine and the simplicity of it. I’d wake up, have breakfast, do a core workout, jump on the home trainer which would kill a few hours, have lunch, have a siesta, go for the maximum walk we were allowed which was one hour, then start cooking dinner, watch a movie and then head to bed. The routine and the trainer really helped me survive through that period.” 

It's also given Roche a fresh perspective on a career he knows is nearing an end.

A stage win still remains his goal but asked what will constitute a good Tour for him he remarked, “I want to ride aggressively, be up there, race my bike and enjoy the adrenaline of the Tour.

“I'm now 36, I want to do four more years but any Tour can realistically be my last one.

“Cycling is a tough business and Covid-19 isn’t helping, so I just have to race with my heart and with passion, as I have always done.”