1. Nicolas Roche is an Irish cyclist, who competes in gravel cycling for his own NR GRVL team.
57 Facts About Nicolas Roche
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Nicolas Roche is a former professional road bicycle racer, who rode professionally between 2005 and 2021 for seven different teams.
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Nicolas Roche started a total of 24 Grand Tours, finishing 22, and he took a total of 65 top-10 finishes in Grand Tour stages, including 43 at the Vuelta a Espana.
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Nicolas Roche represented Ireland at the Olympics on four occasions between 2008 and 2020, and represented Ireland at the UCI Road World Championships eleven times between 2006 and 2020.
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Since retiring from road cycling at the end of the 2021 season, Nicolas Roche has worked as a directeur sportif for UCI Continental team Trinity Racing and as a commentator for the international television feed at the Tour de France alongside Anthony McCrossan.
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Nicolas Roche, who was born in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, in suburban Paris, is the son of former cycling champion Stephen Nicolas Roche and his former wife, Lydia.
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Nicolas Roche is the nephew of former cycling professionals Laurence Roche and Neil Martin and cousin of 2008 Irish road champion Dan Martin.
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Nicolas Roche lived in Dublin from 1996 to 1999, where he was educated at the Lycee Francais d'Irlande in Foxrock for two years, and Blackrock College, a private school, for one year.
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Nicolas Roche moved to southern France in 1999, where he spent most of life since.
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Nicolas Roche turned professional at the end of 2004, with team Cofidis and became one of the youngest UCI ProTour racers.
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In early 2005, Nicolas Roche was told by French officials to choose between his two nationalities.
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Nicolas Roche declared for France as he was planning to spend the rest of his life in France.
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The loss of Nicolas Roche was a blow to Irish cycling, as he had won the 2002 Junior Tour of Ireland and finished third in the 2004 Irish Elite championship.
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However, six months later, the UCI and Cycling Ireland told Nicolas Roche he was given incorrect information, and that he could compete for Ireland and keep his two nationalities, which he did.
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Nicolas Roche's first win as a professional was a stage in the 2004 Tour de l'Avenir, a race known as a mini-Tour de France for riders under 25.
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Nicolas Roche wore the yellow jersey for two days and finished tenth overall.
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Nicolas Roche was in major breakaway in the 2006 World championships in Salzburg, Austria.
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Nicolas Roche had planned 2008 for the Giro d'Italia but organizers RCS did not invite his team.
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Nicolas Roche changed his schedule, and finished sixth in the Tour Ivoirien de la Paix, 15th in Clasica Internacional de Alcobendas in Spain and won a stage in GP Internacional Paredes Rota dos Moveis in Portugal.
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Nicolas Roche had good performances in the Vuelta, nearly winning stage 18 into Las Rozas, where he was outsprinted by Imanol Erviti after a 17-man breakaway.
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Nicolas Roche had three top-ten and ten top-20 stage finishes, finishing a fine 13th in the general classification, during what was only his second Grand Tour.
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Nicolas Roche had a fine debut Tour, finishing in 23rd place overall and 5th in the points classification.
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Nicolas Roche had five top ten placings in the race and finished 2nd on stage 14.
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Nicolas Roche finished 15th overall, but could have been a few ranks above had he not lost four minutes to the race leaders because of a flat tyre in stage 15.
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Nicolas Roche's performance was even better than during the Tour de France, as he was really close to the best climbers of the race, losing very little time in stages with a mountain top finish.
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Nicolas Roche finished 7th overall however was promoted to 6th overall after Ezequiel Mosquera's second place was annulled.
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Nicolas Roche finished only five minutes and three seconds behind overall winner Vincenzo Nibali.
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Nicolas Roche was part of the three-man Irish team at the 2010 World Championships in September.
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Nicolas Roche's season was hampered by injuries and crashes, particularly by one in the Criterium du Dauphine He entered the Tour de France as a team leader again, but quickly realized he had not fully recovered from the crash and could not hope for a good general classification.
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Nicolas Roche got in a number of unsuccessful breaks in the final week, hoping to grab a stage win, and eventually finished 26th overall.
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Nicolas Roche rode the Vuelta a Espana, finishing 16th overall.
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Nicolas Roche finished the season world ranked 150th with 19 ranking points.
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Nicolas Roche published a memoir in 2011 called Inside the Peloton.
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Nicolas Roche renounced his French citizenship in 2012, becoming solely an Irish national.
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Nicolas Roche finished 10th overall in the Tour de Suisse, and 2nd and 3rd respectively in the National Road Race and Time Trial Championships before riding the Tour de France.
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Nicolas Roche moved up to seventh overall on the first mountain stage seven which finished on La Planche des Belles Filles.
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On stage 18, Nicolas Roche broke clear of the peloton in the last 10 kilometres with Luis Leon Sanchez.
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Nicolas Roche sat 11th overall heading into the time trial on stage 20 and targeted a top ten finish, but a weak time trial saw him drop a place to 12th.
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Nicolas Roche then rode the Vuelta a Espana where he had a good start and sat seventh overall by the second week of the race.
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Nicolas Roche held the leader's red jersey until stage 8, and held the lead of the points, mountains and combination classifications at one stage in the race.
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On stage 8 Nicolas Roche lost the jersey finishing eight seconds behind Daniel Moreno to fall one second behind in the general classification.
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Nicolas Roche went on to finish 5th overall in the general classification, his best result to date in a Grand Tour.
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Later that year Nicolas Roche again competed for Ireland in the World Championships and the World Time Trial Championships where he finished 13th.
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Nicolas Roche took part at the Tour de France as a domestique to Alberto Contador.
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Nicolas Roche won the queen stage win in the process and the points classification.
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Nicolas Roche went into the Tour of Britain expecting a good result and placed 5th overall.
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Nicolas Roche started the race as a backup general classification rider to Mikel Landa in the first five days of racing, where he was placed in the top 10 overall.
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Nicolas Roche's form faded over the race but helped his teammate Mikel Nieve win the mountains classification.
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Nicolas Roche took the Red Jersey on Stage 2 of the 2019 Vuelta a Espana after being part of a six-man group who attacked in the final kilometres of the stage.
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Nicolas Roche held the jersey until Stage 5, however he crashed out on stage 6, being one of four riders to abandon due to the crash.
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Nicolas Roche was fifth in the general classification at the start of the stage.
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In September 2019 it was announced that Nicolas Roche had extended his contract with Team Sunweb for a further two years.
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Nicolas Roche retired from road racing competition after the Irish National Cycling Championships in October 2021.
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In October 2022, Nicolas Roche set up his own gravel cycling team, NR GRVL.
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In May 2023, Nicolas Roche took a third-place finish at the UCI Gravel World Series event in Nannup, Western Australia.
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Nicolas Roche married Spaniard Deborah Robles on 23 October 2015, the couple split two years later in September 2017.
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In 2022, Nicolas Roche appeared on the fifth series of the Irish version of Dancing With the Stars.