Nicolas Roche.

Roche leads off summer classic in dunshaughlin next week

Cyclist Nicolas Roche, who will next Sunday lead off the Meath Summer Classic leisure cycle in Dunshaughlin, has described how a dream became a reality for him on Sunday as he escorted Tour de France winner Chris Froome up the Champs-Élysées to win the 2015 Tour de France.
Roche, a Sky team mate of Froome’s, said it was a really incredible feeling to ride those last 500m to the line “with our arms around each other as a team”.
They were given a new team kit in honour of British rider Froome’s impending victory, his second Tour de France win, having taken the Yellow Jersey in 2013 also.
“With the usual blue stripe on our jerseys and shorts changed to yellow, we got helmets and glasses to match and although rain saw us we begin with our rain jackets on, we were so proud of the new kit that we all agreed to take the jackets off on the Champs-Élysées, even if it was snowing! The second we crossed the line though, everyone just jumped on Froomey so we didn’t have much time to celebrate.”
He said that the 2015 Tour been the toughest of the seven he has done so it was a great feeling to have secured the goal of overall victory.
“Our strategy of making the most of the first week, where there were a lot of cobbles, crosswinds and dangerous classic style stages, was a good one. In other years you could maybe try to sit in the wheels behind in an effort to arrive fresh into the mountains but this year we took no risks and stayed up front for the whole opening fortnight.
Even though it was very stressful and cost a lot of energy, it was the right thing to do and while Nairo Quintana was the fastest climber in this Tour, we’d already gained time on him in that opening week.”
The words used most frequently in our pre-stage team meetings here have been 'sharing the workload’ and that’s what characterised this Tour for me.
Nicolas was riding in the San Sebastian classic on Sunday, and will be in Meath next Saturday for the third Meath Summer Classic, organised by his uncle, cyclist Laurence, who lives in Dunshaughlin. There will be three cycles to choose from - a 100km, 60km and a family cycle. See www.meathsummerclassic.com.

* Register online before 1st August to win use of a new BMW series for a week, sponsored by Joe Duffy Fleet Solutions.