09/10/2023

"There was no pacing, there was no teamwork" - Nicolas Roche's outlook on brutal Gravel World Championships

Nicolas Roche retired from pro cycling in 2021 but remains an active cyclist and racer in gravel events. Hence, he made his way to the Gravel World Championships where he reports on a brutal race as he once again faced some of the strongest riders in the world.

“I had an amazing time. There are days when you are in for the performance. Today I was in for a lot of other things, obviously, the performance needs to be there but it was more about properly challenging myself and seeing how far I can go," Roche said in a post-race interview. “I was just having a laugh and saying, you know, gravel is just the crazy CX guys, the crazy mountain guys, the crazy road guys all kind of thrown in together. And it made for some aggressive racing, but some hard racing and there was no pacing, there was no teamwork. I felt that today was like a real what we have in the US, but just with a lot more professional riders."

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A race taken to the limit from early on, the gaps ended up being huge and splits were all across the field. Roche was not too far from the front but eventually couldn't hold the pace of the best. “It took me quite some time to make my way from the back to the front. At about kilometer 40 I made it back to the front and then I was like, 'okay, now I'm just going to go, no pacing, go all in, try and stay with the guys as long as I can and then when I blow, I just blow."

"Then when we hit that real long climb, then just literally about 100 meters before the top, there was a steeper bit and that was it for me," he reports. Then it was a matter of survival in the final hours of racing, but nevertheless the 39-year old went on to finish 36th on the day, 22 minutes down on Matej Mohoric.

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“No one can do the Vuelta or the Tour to prepare for the Worlds of gravel and no one is paid enough money to train and commit as hard as a WorldTour rider. You don't have the support. Maybe I defend my own house, but I just believe that WorldTour riders at the top are one of the fittest athletes on the planet," he argues.

"I just think that WorldTour riders are just better trained and better looked after, they are racehorses and then the rest are trying to do our best. Even the top guys in the US would never have the support that you can have here and the amount of race days."