Explaining his decision to join Team Sky for the 2015 season, Nicolas Roche was perfectly aware that his role in the new squad won’t be much different from the one he played in his current Tinkoff-Saxo outfit. The 30-year old Irishman believes, however, that the British team will help him develop as a rider thanks to their famous “marginal gains and such”.

Reluctant to make any comparisons between his current and future outfit, Roche acknowledged that his role at Team Sky most likely will be the same as the one he played at Tinkoff-Saxo – where he mainly rode in the support of Alberto Contador and Rafał Majka last two seasons. The 30-year old Irishman agreed that he managed to make a progress during that time, what was reflected with his stage victory and fifth place overall at the 2013 Vuelta a Espana, but believes that there is still a lot more to come from him as a professional rider.

Tinkoff-Saxo rider hopes that, apart from becoming a part of the Chris Froome’s climbing lead-out train in the most important stage races of the season, he will be provided with several personal chances to shine in remaining events, pointing out especially to the Vuelta. However, he is also aware that he might as well be sent to Italy to ride in the support of Richie Porte, and since he is joining the British squad together with the likes of Leopold Konig and Wout Poels it really difficult to believe that he would receive more opportunities than he had in Tinkoff-Saxo.

“I think my role will be pretty similar to what it has been at Tinkoff Saxo,” he told CyclingTips Tuesday, referring to his work for Alberto Contador in the past two seasons. “It will be working for Froome every time I am with him, and then I think I will get my chances as well in other races during the year. I am happy with that.

“I still believe that I could be every more solid in Grand Tours in the future. I have been fifth, I have been sixth [in the Vuelta a España – ed.], I have been something like six times in the top 15. I have always been there or thereabouts. I still think I can go closer.

“Obviously on the Tour I will never know as I will be doing my work there, but for example in the Vuelta I still feel I can be close to the podium again.”

Nonetheless, the 30-year old Irishman insisted that it was the right moment to push his career forward and work on subtle details to make further development as professional rider.

“I think going to Sky for me is a good move. I am 30, getting old but not that old. I still feel that I can still learn more,” he said. “I feel that I haven’t reached my limit and I am convinced that a team like Sky will help me develop even more as a rider.

“I also want to get some fresh thinking. I think it is the right moment now for me to go there. I think I have accumulated a lot of experience of the past ten years. I think now it is really important to go into those details. I am convinced that Sky is the perfect team for that, for marginal gains and such.

“I am very happy with this agreement. I am really looking forward to being part of the team. I can’t wait to start working with them.”

“I have been improving in TTs, but I have been pretty inconsistent. I think I have improved a lot in terms of technique, but I still make a lot of mistakes,” he explained. “Once in a while I pull off a couple of good TTs, then I do others than are pretty average.

“I think I can still concentrate on that. I also feel that that I am sometimes frustrated with my climbing, I feel that I could climb even better.

“That said, I have been working on my climbing so much that I have actually lost a lot of my sprinting capabilities. I feel why sacrifice one for the other? I believe that with proper training and guidance I can get that kick I had when I was younger, and also climb strongly as well.”

He also suggested that a change of environment would be very welcome, apparently hinting that robotized but certainly British one at Team Sky would serve him better than a Danish background with Russian .. spirit, under wings of Oleg Tinkov.  

“I am also looking forward to going to an English environment. Being Irish and all that, I felt I would be more at home with Sky,” he said. “There are many smaller details behind this decision and they all add up. Naturally my attraction went to this team.”

He didn’t want to be drawn into a comparison between that team and Sky. “It is like trying to compare Madrid and Barcelona, that would be pretty difficult,” he said.

“A lot of things are very similar. Some things are different. I am not saying there was a bad coach in Tinkoff or anything like that; I am just saying maybe it’s time for a change.”