Differently than last year, Nicolas Roche decided to use an unusually demanding Tour of Britain edition as his ultimate build up towards the World Championship road race. The 30-year old Tinkoff-Saxo rider admitted to be disappointed after narrowly missing out on claiming season’s third victory in the British stage event, but promises to ride a smarter race on Sunday when he will line-up as a part of three-man Irish national team.

Even though last year’s edition of the Vuelta could have been regarded as Roche’s breakthrough performance as a stage racer, the 30-year old Irishman revealed that using Tour of Britain as a build up allows him to enter the World Championships much fresher.

“I felt pretty run down after the Tour of Britain so I took two days off afterwards and started training again on Wednesday morning here in Ponferrada.

“Hopefully I’ll be a bit fresher at the Worlds this year than other years when I’ve come into the race in good shape but lacked a bit of freshness from digging deep at the Vuelta for three weeks beforehand,” Roche told Sticky Bottle.

The Tinkoff-Saxo rider rode a solid yet unimpressive Tour of Britain to finish fifth in the general classification, but missing out on a stage victory bothered him more than not winning the British stage event overall.

“I was a bit disappointed with that stage,” he admits.

“Okay, it was nice to get third but I think I missed out on an opportunity to win the stage and go into yellow."

“There are a few times in the year when you have an opportunity where you know you can actually win and looking back on that day, I really feel I could have done better.”

“When I caught Zardini near the top I’d already put myself on the limit to get across to him so when I accelerated to drop him I went into the red trying to open the gap.

“I’ve read loads of comments on the internet about riding too big a gear but not everyone can spin a little gear on a climb at the end of a long stage and I don’t think it was any bigger than I usually ride.

“My mistake was to attack him straight away. I went that bit over the top to try and get away from him and it caught up with me in the end.”

After participating in the World Championship team time trial event last Sunday, where Tinkoff-Saxo finished fifth after being the fastest squad in the latter part of the course, Roche rode accordingly to his abilities in the individual time trial and is still yet to line up at the road race on September 28.

Being a part of a small three-rider Irish team along with his cousin Daniel Martin (Garmin-Sharp) and Philip Deignan (Team Sky), 30-year old rider admitted that they will have to be much smarter this time around to excel on the hilly parcours in Ponferrada.

“I haven’t seen all of the course for the road race but I think we have a pretty good team here,” Roche said.

“Philip and Dan have both shown they’re in good form at the Vuelta and I think the course should be good for us.

“Obviously with only three riders we will have to be smart as well as strong but hopefully we can get a good result.”