“People stood watching as I was on the ground and my girlfriend shouted for help” – Former Team Sky star Nicolas Roche violently beaten in attempted Barcelona robbery

For a rider who spent years at the heart of the Team Sky Tour de France mountain train, helping control chaos on the steepest roads in cycling, this was a situation Nicolas Roche could not control.

He was on the ground in a street in central Barcelona. Three men were trying to rip a watch from his wrist. His girlfriend was shouting for help.

And, as Roche describes it, people simply stood and watched.

“Where I was shocked was that, for over five minutes, people stood there watching as I was on the ground, as my girlfriend was shouting for help until," the Irish ex-pro and son of former Tour de France winner Stephen Roche recalled of the incident. "Eventually, the two security came out to scare the thieves away.”

The incident happened on Friday evening as Roche left a restaurant. He says the men were waiting outside for him and believes he may have been identified as a target while inside. “It’s crazy to think that someone in the restaurant must have warned the gang to wait outside for me. I had read about all of this in the news, but it’s something else to experience it. Biggest fright of my life.”

Roche was knocked to the ground and beaten as he tried to defend himself. “Just been attacked and beaten up by three men, as I walked out of a restaurant in central Barcelona, trying to rob my watch.”

He says the situation only stopped escalating because of his girlfriend’s reaction and the intervention of two security guards from a nearby shop. “Thanks to my girlfriend and the two security agents from the shop further down the street, I managed to not only save my watch but mostly stopped the attackers from beating me more.”

The strap of the watch was left broken in the struggle. Roche and his girlfriend both suffered minor injuries, as he shared on his Instagram Stories afterwards.

For many cycling fans, Roche is remembered for his role during Chris Froome’s dominant Tour de France years, riding as part of the Sky climbing group that set the tempo on the hardest mountain stages. Across a 17-year WorldTour career, he also claimed Grand Tour stage victories and multiple Irish national titles before retiring at the end of 2021.

Now living in Spain and involved in gravel racing and media work, Roche admitted this was the type of crime he had only previously read about in news reports.

Barcelona has faced a well-documented problem in recent years with organised groups targeting people believed to be wearing expensive watches or jewellery, often following them from restaurants or bars before confronting them in the street.

For Roche, that wider context became a personal reality in a matter of seconds.

His message afterwards was simple. Be careful.