CYCLING:NICOLAS ROCHE avoided trouble on yesterday's seventh stage of the Tour de France, avoiding the large crash which caused the retirement of Bradley Wiggins and delayed several other overall contenders.

Roche sprinted into Chateauroux a solid 15th behind the victorious Briton Mark Cavendish of HTC Highroad, who was picking up his 17th Tour stage win. As a result of several of those ahead of him losing time, the Irishman moved up from 23rd to 18th in the general classification.

He remains one minute 12 seconds behind race leader Thor Hushovd.

Today’s summit finish at Super Besse is expected to reshuffle the standings, as it is the most difficult finale yet in the race. While it is unlikely to be hard enough to cause major splits between the team leaders, it will be the biggest chance yet for Roche to see how his form compares with the other big riders.

He had felt he was lacking in sharpness earlier on in this race, but said he hoped his form would click as the Tour went on.

His preparation for the event was affected by a bad crash he suffered in the Critérium du Dauphiné last month.