Nicolas Roche was very pleased with his Tinkoff-Saxo team’s time trial yesterday in Belfast. They were fourth on the stage and only 23 seconds down on winners Orica-Greenedge despite not being renowned for their team time trial. Crucially, Roche and co-leader Rafal Majka have put time into men like Quintana, Rodriguez, Hesjedal and Kelderman, with only Cadel Evans and Rigoberto Uran taking time on them.

 “I think we've done a good time,” He told reporters at the finish line of stage one.

"Orica are probably the strongest team today and it was always going to be hard to beat them."

"But yesterday morning I was saying that if we were within 30 seconds of the winning team, we'd be doing well. I can't see another team putting another 10 or 20 seconds into them - at least I hope not."

This was an exellent ride when you consider that three members of the team were competing in their first team time trial. And Roche points out that the team had no specialists either unlike Greenedge and BMC.

"We had no specialists on the team, either, apart from Mick [Rogers - who finished with the main Tinkoff-Saxo group of riders on his second day’s racing in 2014 - Ed.], although I think it's one of my strong points, too."

Roche concluded with praise for the Belfast crowd, which he said made the race “"something very special, it was a very warm welcome. The crowds were brilliant, a lot more than I expected. It was breathtaking."