SO, Nicolas Roche will swap being Alberto Contador’s servant to perform the same role for Chris Froome after leaving Tinkoff-Saxo for Team Sky.
It’s a bizarre move in many ways, not least because Roche has a sampled life as a lead rider. Having been entrusted with leading his current employers at the 2013 Vuelta a Espana, the 30-year-old finished a credible fifth. While he was not given a leadership role in a Grand Tour this year, he surely would have in future seasons.
At Sky, he faces a battle with four others for supremacy: 2013 Tour de France winner Chris Froome; Froome’s right-hand man in that win, Richie Porte; 2014 Commonwealth Games gold medallist Geraint Thomas and fellow new signing Leopold Konig, who has finished in the top 10 of every Grand Tour he has competed in.
Team Sky look like they are fast becoming the Real Madrid of cycling with that line-up. It has already been suggested that Roche, son of 1987 Giro d’Italia and Tour de France winner Stephen, has been signed to play the role of ‘domestique’ for Froome in next year’s Tour de France — cycling’s equivalent of a defensive midfielder.
For the last two seasons, Roche has performed the role admirably for Contador, sacrificing any ambitions he had of grabbing the headlines for himself for the greater good of the team.
There were other teams interested in Roche, including IAM Cycling and Trek Factory Racing, who would more than likely offer the Irishman a starring role. Is he really that selfless to have turned these advances down, or was there another sterling factor that influenced his decision?
The career of a cyclist is brutally short and just plain brutal. Opportunities to stay in the sport after retirement are few and far between.
Roche is at an age where he has to question what his life will be like when he is off the bike for good. The likes of IAM and Trek lack the financial clout of Tinkoff-Saxo and Sky, who are backed by wealthy owners.
Compared to other top sportspeople, even the likes of Froome and Contador are poorly paid. So who can blame Roche for choosing fortune over fame?
Meanwhile, Ireland’s Dan Martin won the Giro di Lombardia by one second from Alejandro Valverde of Spain. Martin becomes the second Irishman to win the one-day classic after Sean Kelly, who triumphed in 1983, 1985 and 1991.
