It’s fair to say that from the outset, 31-year-old Nicolas Roche was steeped in cycling. His father is Stephen Roche, who famously won the Tour de France in 1987, and he is also the nephew of former cycling professionals Lawrence Roche and Neil Martin. For good measure, he is a cousin of 2008 Irish road champion, Dan Martin.

Raised in France and Ireland (he spent a year in Blackrock College), Roche had the inevitable interest in cycling as a kid but he also enjoyed rugby and soccer. Turning professional as a cyclist in 2004, Roche subsequently rode for a number of teams, including Cofidis, Credit Agricole and Ag2r-La Mondiale. Now based in Monaco, in 2015 the cylist transferred from Saxo-Tinkoff to Team Sky: he helped Chris Froome to victory in last year’s Tour de France.

NICOLAS ROCHE: It’s not going as well as we planned for the team – but that’s the beauty of sport. We’ve been really applying the pressure to try and get ourselves into it – even today, we attempted a new tactical approach. Froomey hasn’t been able to go for a win. This is his first race in Europe after returning from illness, so he has to get back into the rhythm. Nevertheless, we tried out some interesting new stuff.