Nicholas Roche has finished 12th in the Elite Men’s Time Trial at the 2017 UCI Road World Championships in Bergen, Norway today. The 31km Time Trial included a summit finish for the first time at the World Championships, which suited the powerful BMC rider. Tom Dumoulin (NED) won the World Title in a time of 44:41.00, almost a minute clear of silver medallist Primoz Roglic from Slovenia. Great Britain’s Cris Froome rounded off the podium with a bronze medal.


Speaking after the race Roche was happy with his performance – “I left it all out on the road, and I’m happy enough with how today went. I would have liked to break into the top ten, symbolically, but tenth, twelfth, it’s much the same.”


Finishing on Mount Floyen, with a 3.4km climb averaging 9% gradient went in the favour of the Irish Olympian – “The climb is the bit that worked out best for me, compared to the real time-trial specialist. I didn’t lose as much time on the climb to them as I did on the flatter bits, so it suited me. That’s my best finish at the World’s so far – I was thirteenth in 2013, so I’m happy with twelfth today.”


The focus for all the riders now moves to the Road Races, with U23 Men first to test the circuit on Friday. All the road races will include the same 17.9km circuit in Bergen, and Roche is looking forward to competing again on Sunday.


“The road race is very open, and it always a different race. It’s good to have such a big team racing this year,” said Roche, referring to the six Irish riders due to line up in the Elite Men’s Road Race. “It’s the first time that I remember having such a big number starting. I’m going into this year’s race with a different mindset. I’m going to take it kilometre by kilometre and see how it goes.”


There will be no racing in Bergen tomorrow, Thursday, and on Friday five Irish riders will be competing in the 191km Men’s U23 Road Race; Mark Downey, Daire Feely, Darragh O’Mahony, Adam Stenson and Matthew Teggart.


The World Road Championships run from the 17-24 September, during which eighteen Irish riders compete across eight events.


RESULTS:


ELITE MEN’S TIME TRIAL

Gold Tom Dumoulin (NED) 44:41.00

Silver Primoz Roglic (SLO) +57.79

Bronze Chris Froome (GBR) +1:21.25

12th Nicholas Roche +1.53.54