IRELAND’S Nicolas Roche lost time to the general classification riders yesterday, but moved up from 40th to 27th overall in the race.

The Ag2r La Mondiale rider cracked towards the top of the finishing climb of Mûr-de-Bretagne, losing contact with the group he had been in and crossing the line 19 seconds behind stage winner Cadel Evans (BMC Racing Team).

Roche had said that he expected it to take a week or more to get back into the rhythm of racing due to the disruption to his Tour preparations when he crashed heavily last month.

He was lacking a few per cent on the final climb and with the riders going flat out in the battle for the stage win, that revealed itself.

“I knew it was going to be very hard, but I was hoping it wouldn’t be quite so tough,” he told The Irish Times afterwards.

“What I hoped and the reality were a bit different. I almost made it, I was the last man to drop off from the group ahead. I am a bit angry with that, I was better being at eight seconds than 18 seconds because of the time split.

“I would have been satisfied to have finished with that Basso group, which was only a few seconds ahead of me.”

As Roche alludes to, the time of all the riders in a group is taken from the front rider; even if he finished at the back of a long line, he would be clocked at the same time as the leader in that particular bunch.

Had he managed to hang on, he would have conceded eight seconds rather than 18 to Evans, Contador and eight others, but slipping back in the last kilometre cost him a little extra time.

“I am disappointed; I would have liked to have been with the top guys, but on the other hand I hope that today will do me good for the next few days,” he said.

“I definitely needed to do some really hard work to get my system going. The last time I sprinted like that was back in the Dauphine a month ago, and I had the crash and everything since then.

“Hopefully this week will ride me in. I am just keeping my fingers crossed that the legs do come back and that I will be capable of performing well in the mountains.”

The next uphill finish is on Saturday to Super Besse.