Nicolas Roche Discussion Thread

[Dedelou]

I assume you're talking about Pinot and not Roche. But I'm not sure since this is the Roche thread and he formerly rode for a French team. Roche is Irish by the way.

just kidding you. His mother his french probably that makes him both. to be honest. I tease our good Irish friends by calling him our best French rider. But kidding aside we are really proud of him and Saxo

 

[Angliru]

just kidding you. His mother his french probably that makes him both. to be honest. I tease our good Irish friends by calling him our best French rider. But kidding aside we are really proud of him and Saxo

Just wanted to be sure. Not here often enough to be up on the inside jokes and playful jabs.

 

[jyhjyh]

Roches's ITT Diary

'I don't know where the new positive mental attitude has come from -- maybe my stage win, maybe my day in the leader's jersey has boosted my confidence -- but today I never got out of focus from the minute I got up this morning.!

http://www.independent.ie/incoming/...hind-me-i-felt-like-a-superstar-29554005.html

 

[murali]

that was a very good article by roche.

Is he entering the golden period of his career?

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Brave response today to his bad day yesterday.

I suspect that he had the legs to stick with the leading five anyway, even without the attack. But even though he didn't gain much time in the end he rolled the dice and tried to gain serious time, which I will always admire in a top 10 rider.

 

[Netserk]

Brave response today to his bad day yesterday.

I suspect that he had the legs to stick with the leading five anyway, even without the attack. But even though he didn't gain much time in the end he rolled the dice and tried to gain serious time, which I will always admire in a top 10 rider.

Yeah that was very nice. With some luck it could've been a minute.

Good try and I think that it gave some good morale for the team.

 

[Afrank]

Yep, good racing by Roche today. It's always good when a rider is interested in actually racing instead of just defending.

 

[martyfulu]

THink pinot would have been attacking him had he been with the GC guys. Being able to ride at his own pace would have been an advantage for him imo.

 

[murali]

I don't think that today could be categorized as "good". This is a decent performance.

for good, he should have atleast come in 5th place.
Saxo had kept 2 riders upfront for this. But I guess either the riders were too tired, or they didn't manage to pull hard enough to make a respectful advantage. Ideally, this tactic should have resulted in @30sec advantage on leaders to categorize as good.

But, at the end of the day, and after considering yesterday's horrible stage, it is a good performance by by roche, the rider.

 

[Cance > TheRest]

I don't think that today could be categorized as "good". This is a decent performance.

for good, he should have atleast come in 5th place.
Saxo had kept 2 riders upfront for this. But I guess either the riders were too tired, or they didn't manage to pull hard enough to make a respectful advantage. Ideally, this tactic should have resulted in @30sec advantage on leaders to categorize as good.

But, at the end of the day, and after considering yesterday's horrible stage, it is a good performance by by roche, the rider.

Or maybe it simply wasnt that easy to maintain a 30sec gap in the last 7-8k when the favourites group were pulling hard (Kiserlovski destroying the group, trying to make Nibali feel some pressure from Horner). Very good performance by the team and Roche today. Unfortunately they were never really lucky, meaning that there was little tactical display (attack-slow-attack-slow) in the Horner-Nibali group

 

[Dedelou]

I don't think that today could be categorized as "good". This is a decent performance.

for good, he should have atleast come in 5th place.
Saxo had kept 2 riders upfront for this. But I guess either the riders were too tired, or they didn't manage to pull hard enough to make a respectful advantage. Ideally, this tactic should have resulted in @30sec advantage on leaders to categorize as good.

But, at the end of the day, and after considering yesterday's horrible stage, it is a good performance by by roche, the rider.

Well Roche was the only one today who finished ahead of the GC leader and was not part of the break. As the top guys were charging to the finish he held them at bay. That is not only good, it was fantastic.

 

[jens_attacks]

ballsy riding today and smart . he needs to attack on cordal too

 

[Jelantik]

GO NICHOOOOOO.... it's not done until the fat spaniard lady sings....

 

[murali]

Unfortunately they were never really lucky, meaning that there was little tactical display (attack-slow-attack-slow) in the Horner-Nibali group

Well Roche was the only one today who finished ahead of the GC leader and was not part of the break. As the top guys were charging to the finish he held them at bay.

it was known that the nibali-horner duo will repeat the stage 14 performance. yesterday's climb was not bad enough to drop the top-7 in GT. It was known that the leading 6 will go faster in the final climb. Saxo did the right thing by having 2 team mates up, and the CAS move to launch roche. But the team should have anticipated the kind of in-roads that the leading 6 would have made, and accommodated that in their gaps.

Saxo and roche tried, and i too feel that the idea was a fantastic one. All i was saying was that roche should have gained an advantage of two minutes, and lost only one and half min in the final climb. I think saxo missed Kreuziger today, so that CAS could have followed every move of pinot.

All i am saying is that the saxo story looked like a porn film, where the stud discharges prematurely. too much hope, but unsatisfactory result for a roche follower.

 

[movingtarget]

One really bad day for Roche. Just what you can't afford in GTs but he has still ridden a good race. Maybe the weather got to him like many others. Still has time to do a good overall result if he can be consistent for the rest of the week.

 

[barmaher]

I think it was a smart move by Roche. He would not have been suited by the repeated attacks in the main group. He was able to ride his own pace, and only had to make his own running for the last 3km.

If he had ridden with the group until 3km to go, and then struck for home to gain an advantage of 13 seconds (plus bonus) we would be hailing a great ride.

In reality, he only did that 3km, plus the last kilometer of Bales.

I think it was a smart plan, well executed. It is a pity that Nibali worked for the last 1.5km. Otherwise it may have been 30 seconds.

 

[murali]

Super happy with today's performance by roche.

He had placed chaps strategically in front of him for the possibility of a late attack. He tried to repeat yesterday's attack. Couldn't sustain the surge from purito. Tried to follow the wheels of purito for sometime, Then intelligently switched tactics to just follow pozzo. Eventually, he managed to claw back a sec. A very intelligent ride today. I think two intermediate sprints, and he will be up in GC.

After today's performance, yesterday's effort looks like an excellent one.

 

[Angliru]

Super happy with today's performance by roche.

He had placed chaps strategically in front of him for the possibility of a late attack. He tried to repeat yesterday's attack. Couldn't sustain the surge from purito. Tried to follow the wheels of purito for sometime, Then intelligently switched tactics to just follow pozzo. Eventually, he managed to claw back a sec. A very intelligent ride today. I think two intermediate sprints, and he will be up in GC.

After today's performance, yesterday's effort looks like an excellent one.

Yesterday's effort looked pretty good to me yesterday. He's holding his own and riding smart. I hope he can maintain this level for one more week.

 

[murali]

ah......... forgive me for being too much worried. knowing nico's last week issues, i am in more stress when he does well in the earlier part of the race.

btw, i am happy that he lost time of stage 14 due to temperature, and not due to lack of "legs".

I just hope that he goes for some intermediate sprints now and take care of that 5 sec gap well before angliru.

The good thing is that he has already had his share of one bad day. He is smarter, stronger, and more confident this time. 3 more good days and he can podium.

 

[Gloin22]

Looks like Top 5 is close to certain. He would have to explode masively on Angrilu to loose it.

Only possible contender left is Pozzo, 2 minutes down and is not looking better than him. Great achievement by him.

Ruben, it seems at the end you will have to eat your own words ;P

 

[murali]

was nico playing defensive today?

I was pretty sure CAS was up ahead for a late attack from nico. but it seemed later that either they changed plan, or they had already decided that this stage was for CAS to go for glory.


impressive ride by nico. despite the expected attack, he has lost just 5 sec to jrod and valv. well done!

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

It seems he really is climbing at roughly the level of Valverde - Purito - Nibali - Pinot - Pozzovivo.

 

[murali]

It seems he really is climbing at roughly the level of Valverde - Purito - Nibali - Pinot - Pozzovivo.

i think the change of team has really helped him. he was properly cared for all throughout the race. i just wonder what he would have done if he had a proper support in the last year as well.

 

[Angliru]

It seems he really is climbing at roughly the level of Valverde - Purito - Nibali - Pinot - Pozzovivo.

At this point he's better than Pinot & Pozzivivo. He's really put in a fine performance. His dad should be quite proud.

 

[Angliru]

Let's not forget that Roche lost weight for this season (or specifically for the Vuelta) which of course would contribute to his improved climbing.