CYCLING:BATTLING TIREDNESS but still trying to do something to leave his mark on this Tour de France, Nicolas Roche tried without success to get into the winning break on yesterday's stage of the race. The Ag2r La Mondiale rider was aggressive early on but things didn't work out. He ultimately finished 75th, eight minutes 47 seconds back, and dropped to 22nd overall as a result.

"To be honest, I am feeling worse every day," he told The Irish Timesyesterday evening. "This season has been messed up (with injury) . . . was hoping I'd get away with it but I knew there was a chance that I wouldn't. All of the incidents of the year have caught up with me. I spent a lot of energy trying to get away today, anyway . . . I was in some of the earlier moves but they didn't stay clear."

Five days remain in the race, with three tough mountain stages being followed by Saturday’s time trial and then Sunday’s final stage to Paris. He could give in to fatigue and just roll around, but he is determined to try to get something out of the race.

“The deal is that I don’t want to finish the Tour without trying something,” he explained.

“A high general classification position is gone now, there’s no chance of that, so that means I am going to be putting everything into trying to get away in the days ahead. I will attack and just see what happens.”