Ireland’s Nicolas Roche says Olympic Games TT course “very difficult”
Posted on: July 27th, 2021
Nicolas Roche has said the course for tomorrow’s elite men’s TT at the Olympic Games is very challenging, adding anticipated monsoon conditions could impact the event.
Roche competed in the men’s road race – with Dan Martin
and Eddie Dunbar – on Saturday when Martin was best placed of the Irish in 16th
position.
And the Team DSM rider will be Ireland’s sole
representative in the Olympic TT tomorrow, when the riders will face at 44.2km
course.
That race route is two laps of an undulating circuit,
starting and finishing at the Fuji International Speedway.
Roche told stickybottle he’d been out on the course and believed it was a
challenging route.
“The recon went
OK, it’s a very difficult TT;
the road is either going up or down
all the way,” he said, after riding five laps of the circuit.
“The weather
could play a part as storms are
predicted,” he said of a weather front that has already seen rowing events at
the Games suspended for a couple of days.
“I’ve been
training a lot more on the TT
bike over the last eight weeks and I’ll
give it my best.”
Roche will conclude his fourth Olympic Games with his TT
rider and has not ruled out the possibility of continuing racing for three more
years and competing at his fifth Olympics in Paris 2024.
