CYCLING:Twenty years after his father, Stephen, won the race on the way to a Giro d'Italia, Tour de France and World Championship treble, young Irish professional Nicolas Roche is aiming to ride the Tour of Italy in May.

The third-year professional has transferred to the Credit Agricole team for 2007 and while he is still just 22 years of age, he is keen to do his first Grand Tour.

"I will hopefully do the Giro although I am not sure yet," he said in recent days. "I am one of those pencilled in to ride it and if I make the selection, I would like to perform pretty well.

"Of course, I won't go for the general classification at my age but I would like to show that I am there and work well for the team."

Roche has made steady progress for the past few years and in 2006 had a big breakthrough when he won a stage of the prestigious Tour de l'Avenir and finished 10th overall.

The next one or two seasons are about building strength and experience and, to that end, taking part in a three-week Tour is important. He says that if he does not ride the Tour of Italy, he is almost certain to do the Tour of Spain.

The Cote d'Azur-based rider has set out other goals before then.

"First of all I would really like to be at top form for the Tour of the Mediterranean as it is close to my home. It is also a race I always liked to watch on TV (as an amateur). Then hopefully I can go well in Paris-Nice and then all the French cups in April."

His morale has been boosted by his strong end of season and this is something which has helped him get into good shape.

"I was really happy with what I did at the end of the year. That is part of my motivation - as I was going so well, I was happy to get back on the bike again after my break.

"I did a good few weeks training and I am pretty happy with what I got done. The weather was good here so I did a bit more than usual, which is fine. The new team is also working out very well, so all in all I'm pretty motivated."