CYCLING:DRIVEN ON by the desire to make up for a disappointing Tour de France, Nicolas Roche will tomorrow get his Vuelta a España underway in a flat-out 16 kilometre team time-trial around the streets of Benidorm.
The Spanish holiday town is the location for the opener of the three week Tour of Spain, although there will be little sightseeing and certainly no time on the beach.
Roche finished a superb seventh overall in the Vuelta last year, building on his 15th place in the Tour, but this season has been a more difficult one. Several separate periods of injury compromised his Tour de France preparation and he never really got going in the race, having to be satisfied with 26th overall.
The 27-year-old Irishman is optimistic that he will have a good Vuelta, even if he admits that he’s not certain how he’s going. “It is difficult to say, I haven’t done any racing since the Classica San Sebastian,” he told The Irish Times yesterday.
“But I certainly do feel better every day. Out training, I don’t feel as tired as when I was at the Tour. Hopefully things can go well, although for now I have to be discrete about my expectations.”
Essentially, Roche doesn’t want to make any predictions about how the race will go for him. He said that he will set out with high aspirations, but is also being guarded. “I don’t want to say too much beforehand,” he explained. “In three or four days, I will know how good I am.”
Unlike other editions of this and other Grand Tours, the first mountains will come extremely early in the race. Three days after the team time-trial, the riders will have another lung-buster when they slug it out on the summit finish of Sierra Nevada. Hitting the high climbs so early on will break up the general classification and quickly pinpoint who is going well.
There’s time to ride into form, but time losses incurred at this early point will be difficult to get back. Roche hopes to be back to his best climbing form, although he conceded that he is not as light as he was last time round. Still, he’s hoping that the hard workout he got in the Tour will pay dividends in Spain.
Two Irish riders will start the race, with Roche’s first cousin Daniel Martin also taking part. The Garmin-Cervélo rider finished a superb second overall in the recent Tour of Poland, and told The Irish Times in recent days that he is ready to try to chase a high general classification finish in the event.
In other news, the UCI announced this week the allocation of places for the various world championship event it will hold at the end of September. Ireland’s elite riders will have three entries, thanks mainly to the high points total collected by Martin this year, while three others will be entitled to take part in the women’s event. The same number can ride the under-23 road race plus the junior road race, while the junior women can field up to four. Two Irish riders can start in each of the time- trial categories.
Finally the Sky Ride Etape Hibernia, an IMG-organised mass participation event, will take place this Sunday and is expected to draw huge numbers.
British Sky Procycling professional Steve Cummings has been confirmed as taking part, as will fellow pro Dean Downing and former number one Seán Kelly.
Entries will be accepted tomorrow at The Glor in Ennis until 8pm, and may also be available before 6.45am on Sunday morning. The ride will be held in Co. Clare and totals 134 kilometres in length.
WEEKEND FIXTURES
Saturday: Beechmount Cup, starts 7pm in Kilmessan. West Down GP, starts 11am from Katesbridge Hall. Kerry RR champs, starts from Killorglin Sports and Leisure Centre.
Sunday: Women's National League two-stage race, Roe Valley Leisure Centre. Collins/Christle Memorial, Kilmessan, starts 2pm. Leinster Youth Championships, Kilmessan, start noon. Connacht TT championships, Castlebar CC; Ulster Youth Championships, starts from Roe Valley Leisure Centre at 9.30.
