It was almost a first ever stage win for Ireland’s Nicolas Roche on today’s 18th stage of the Tour de France. But a flying finish by Mark Cavendish robbed the AG2R rider.
It has been a good Tour de France for Ireland, with Nicolas Roche and his cousin Dan Martin both performing well. And as we watched the closing stages today we thought that Roche might achieve what would surely be a career highlight and claim a maiden Tour de France stage win.
With just 500m to go it looked like a straight fight for glory between Roche and Luis-Leon Sanchez before World Champion Cavendish appeared like a steam train to take his second stage of the 2012 Tour, and the 22nd of his career. Maybe Roche was fading anyway but nobody was going to beat that finish by Cavendish.
Roche remains in 11th overall. His Tour diary tomorrow should be a good read.
