Given the green light by his team to ride next year’s Giro d’Italia, which begins with three days in Ireland, Nicolas Roche has said that his racing programme will be completely modified next season in order to try to ensure he is in top form.
“I am going to try to be there in the best shape possible,” he said yesterday, confirming that he intends to ride the full race rather than a certain number of stages and then withdrawing to be fresh for the Tour de France.
“I am going to have a new race programme to approach the Giro, more training camps and all that.
Training regime
I will most likely start with the Tour of Oman. Then I'll probably do Tirreno-Adriatico, Milan-Sanremo, plus the later classics
– Amstel Gold, Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège.
“There will also be some training camps with the other riders for the Giro. It should be interesting.”
The Giro is starting for the first time outside mainland Europe and will begin with a team time trial in Belfast on May 9th. A road-race stage starting and finishing in the same city follow the next day and then the race will travel south between Armagh and Dublin on day three.
Roche’s compatriot and first cousin Dan Martin will lead the Garmin-Sharp selection in the race, while Philip Deignan may ride as part of team Sky.
Irish contingent
Other Irish riders might take part
: Martyn Irvine’s UnitedHealthcare squad, Sam Bennett’s NetApp Endura team and Stephen Clancy’s Novo Nordisk outfit are aiming for wildcard invites.
Roche cautioned that it is too soon to set targets, but that he hopes to ride as well as possible.
Many riders who do the Giro in recent years have been fatigued for the Tour de France. He hopes this won’t be the case. “I’ve tended to be strong in the Vuelta a España after doing the Tour, so I’m hoping that having the Tour as my second Grand Tour of the year would actually help me be in better form than usual.”
