There is plenty of Irish interest in this year’s Tour de France
Rookie Sam Bennett joins veteran Nicolas Roche and 2013 stage winner Dan Martin in the peloton, but what prospects do each have of making an impact on this year’s race?
Nicolas Roche
Team Sky
Age: 31 (on Friday)
Tours de France: 6
Best finish: 12th, 2012
Grand Tours: 13
Best finish: 5th, 2013 Vuelta a Espana
Grand Tour stage wins: 1
2015 prospects: Roche will be an important player in this year’s Tour but is unlikely to see any glory himself. In his role as road captain for Sky, he will be key to controlling the race for team leader Chris Froome during the tricky opening week, especially on the difficult cobbled sections on Stage 4 to Cambrai. Roche will also be expected to bury himself in support of Froome once the race hits the mountains. Only in the event of a crash or injury ruling Froome out of the race will Roche be given the freedom to seek any individual accolades.
Prediction: Plenty of donkey-work in the first week protecting Froome from danger followed by pace-setting on early kilometres of climbs as Sky try to set a hard tempo for the rest before shooting out the back of the peloton when his work is done.
Dan Martin
Cannondale-Garmin
Age: 28
Tours de France: 3
Best finish: 33rd, 2013
Grand Tours: 8
Best finish: 7th, 2014 Vuelta a Espana
Grand Tour stage wins: 2
2015 prospects: Martin will be hunting stage wins and appears to be hitting form just at the right time after struggling through some injuries earlier in the year. Things didn’t quite fall his way in the Dauphine three weeks ago but he showed he had plenty in his legs on a couple of the tougher days there. Goes into the Tour as one of three ‘co-leaders’ on the Cannondale-Garmin team, so will not be obliged to work for general classification hopeful Andrew Talansky and will have the freedom to take his chances when he can. His past successes in the one-day classics will make him a real threat on the uphill finishes in the first week while he should be able to hang tough and possibly seize an opportunity in the bigger mountains as well.
Prediction: A top-20 overall finish and his second Tour stage victory
Sam Bennett
Team Bora-Argon 18
Age: 24
Tours de France: 0
Grand Tours: 0
Wins this year: 3
2015 prospects: In his first Grand Tour, Bennett will spearhead the hopes of German wild card team Bora-Argon, who have demonstrated their confidence in the young sprinter by designating him one of their protected riders. Bennett might not have the pure speed to compete with the likes of Mark Cavendish, Andre Greipel and Alexander Kristoff in a bunch sprint, but he has already shown himself to be a canny operator that does not necessarily need a team around him in the final kilometres to prevail. His ability to hang tough with the peloton on some smaller climbs that see those other sprinters jettisoned may give him a couple of opportunities against a thinner crop of fast finishers.
Prediction: He will hopefully get himself into the mix on the flat stages but his best chance of contesting a stage win might come on one of the punchy finishes in the first week or if he can survive the medium mountains on a day like Stage 13 to Rodez.
