Nicolas
Roche has said his 10-week stint on ‘Dancing with the Stars’ was the perfect
move to make after retirement from pro racing as it forced him to break away
from the routine of his cycling life.
The 37-year-old hung up his wheels at the end of last season and on Sunday bowed out of the hit RTE dancing showing after making it to the last six contestants as others fell by the wayside.
“This
was the best timing ever, I could not have wished for a better transition into
my non-cycling life,” he said of the TV show opportunity coming up just months
after he stepped away from the pro peloton after 17 seasons.
“It was very difficult for me, even in December I was feeling very guilty when I wasn’t training or if I wasn’t eating right,” Roche said. “Even at the beginning of winter, I was still struggling. I was feeling guilty for not training enough and letting go of the diet.
He added the dance training was so tiring and challenging he was “shattered” and it forced him to “really cut from my cycling routine, especially mentally”.
“It has completely changed my mindset. I’m so grateful, it came at the perfect time,” he said of the whole experience of being on the show and the weeks of preparation before the weekly live TV broadcasts began.
He was
praised for the progress he made each week on the show as he transitioned from
being a contestant who received the lowest scores from the judges in the
opening week to one who received praise for his efforts and work ethic.
His
long stint staying in the show, as other dancers were eliminated, also
suggested he was a hit with the viewers, who vote by text each week to keep
their favourite contestant in the show.
“I
gave it socks, as we say in cycling,” Roche said of his final week dance-off
against Paralympic swimmer Ellen Keane. “It was a challenging journey. Every
time I went there I said ‘Ok, I’ll try my best and see how it goes all the way
until the end’.
Roche
joked he was given a rude awakening when he was forced to truly assess his
dancing abilities once the show switched from its initial training period to a
challenging weekly routine of learning a new dance in five days for the live TV
show every Sunday evening.
“You
always think you dance better until you see yourself on video,” he said. “And
then you look at the video and you think ‘no, I look petrified, I look stiff.
I’m not doing the steps right’.”
He
said his dance partner Karen Byrne had helped him to relax and settle in to the
routine every week. However, he was not surprised he lost out to swimmer Keane
as she had consistently performed better than him on each show.
During
one week on the show last month each contestant got to dedicate their
performance to somebody of their choice. Roche picked his brother Alexis as he
had donated bone marrow to help their younger brother Florian recover from leukaemia.
He
said he was delighted to shine the spotlight on Alexis for the selfless
contribution he had made to the family. He also explained Florian was now
recovered from leukaemia – 10 years after first falling ill with the
disease. He had even been able to do work experience earlier this year, which
was well ahead of the progress the family had expected for him.
Interviewed
by Oliver Callan yesterday on RTE Radio 1 after his exit from the show on
Sunday evening, Roche also explained that he considered himself “100 per cent
Irish”, despite his accent suggesting he had left Ireland many years ago.
He
said he lived between France and Ireland until he was seven or eight before
them settling in France until he was aged 11 years. At that point the family
moved back to Dublin and Roche attended a French school in Foxrock, south
Dublin, until they relocated once more to France when he was aged 15 years.
He
said he was “never fully Irish in Ireland and never fully French in France” and
so in his mid 20s he had surrendered his French nationality in favour of being
Irish. However, he was still very proud of the French side of the family,
through his mother Lydia.
