Roche: Ireland team needs to be clever at Worlds

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Nicolas Roche (Tinkoff Saxo) attacks, earning the most aggressive rider prize(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)

For Fabian Cancellara, it’s a new phenomenon, but for Ireland, it’s a familiar predicament. The curious scoring system used to assign places for the World Championships road race has left the Swiss with a reduced team of three riders in Ponferrada on Sunday, but for Ireland’s trio of Nicolas Roche, Dan Martin and Philip Deignan, it’s simply business as usual. As ever, the tactical cloth will be cut accordingly.

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Barry Ryan is Head of Features at Cyclingnews. He has covered professional cycling since 2010, reporting from the Tour de France, Giro d’Italia and events from Argentina to Japan. His writing has appeared in The Independent, Procycling and Cycling Plus. He is the author of The Ascent: Sean Kelly, Stephen Roche and the Rise of Irish Cycling’s Golden Generation, published by Gill Books.