Currently training with his new Team Sky setup on the island of Mallorca, Nicolas Roche has said that he is way ahead of where he was at this time last year. Twelve months ago the Irish professional was struggling with a knee injury, a problem which complicated things in the months after his stage win and fifth place overall in the Vuelta a España.

The issue compromised his training and delayed the start of his season. While he won the Route du Sud in June, his first-ever pro stage race victory, he didn’t quite fire on all cylinders during the year.

However, with things going much more to plan this time round, he was sounding content when speaking on Thursday evening.

“Everything has been good,” he said. “I’m injury free. I’ve done some good training here at the camp. We have had already a week here and there is another week to go.”

Roche previously raced with the Tinkoff Saxo team, backing Alberto Contador for the past two seasons. He signed for the squad and for that role with the intention of building experience and developing into a better rider, and the expectation was that he would then move on and return to a leadership position.

It was consequently a little surprising that he opted to move to Team Sky and work for Chris Froome, but he sounds happy with the choice.

“I hope to be in the Tour squad and backing Chris,” he confirmed. “It will be an exciting challenge to be part of the team trying to win the race. I had that role before, but this will be with different riders, a different jersey and a different group. Fingers crossed that everything will go well.”

Asked if he will get his own opportunities during the season, he said that specific goals for him to aim for haven’t yet been laid out. However, his approach is to try to get into the best form possible and take it from there.

Opportunities

“I probably will end up having quite a few openings during the year. When you are strong, the opportunities are much easier to have than when you are weak. I am pretty sure that opportunities will come and it will be my task to make the most of them.”

Roche is scheduled to make his racing debut in the Ruta del Sol in Spain from February 18 - 22. By that time the rest of his schedule will be a lot more clear.