The last time the Tour started with a time trial, instead of a prologue or road race stage, was in 2005 when David Zabriskie won the opening TT. The Tour’s opening TT was a 15km challenging road route that combines climbing skills, descending skills, and a lot of anaerobic power. This suits well for many of the riders on AG2R as none are really prologue specialists but all are aggressive road riders with a combination of great climbing and descending skills.

Despite the technical course, and the long uphill, the AG2R riders took the decision to race on their Aero BH time trial bikes. The geometry of the BH time trial bikes provide road like handling while keeping the aerodynamic advantages necessary for this specific event. Nicolas Roche started off with the old time trial bike back in April and stated that he didn’t have any problems. “Last year’s model was pretty good already but the new one is a step better.” This step becoming better took place partly because of the UCI rules and their enforcement of the 3:1 ratio for tubes and parts. In speaking with one of the mechanics he explained, “The bike has some design changes and it’s mostly in the rear triangle and the down tube. In order to comply with UCI the down tube had to be changed so BH decided to make everything better.” BH also redesigned the rear triangle giving a bigger cut out in the seat tube for the rear wheel to sit closer to the seat tube. These design changes resulted in a stiffer rear triangle for a greater transfer of power to the wheels.

Even with the tough uphill section of the TT the aerodynamic advantages of the TT bike were beneficial to the riders. “You have to use a bit of strength with the TT bike and the TT wheels, they are a bit heavier. Altogether with the flat piece, and my good position on the bike, this will count a lot to going faster,” commented Roche. Nicholas started 112th in the time trial stage and perhaps had a bit tougher ride then some of the later riders. The bright sun and humidity made it tough for the early riders and it wasn’t until late in the start order when the heat started to dissipate. The high heat and humidity causes a lot of excess stress on the athletes including elevated heart rates.

Riding his first Tour de France stage Nicholas Roche finished in 43rd place only 1’ 27” down on the winner Fabian Cancellera. It was a good ride by the Irish national road champion and he looks forward to the next stages. The next chance the riders will be able to test the BH Aero TT bike will be during the Stage 4 TTT. This event will have all nine riders working cohesively as one unit flying down the road inches from each other wheels. It’s a race of strength and speed and as Roche put it, “The main thing is that the new bike is stiffer and faster.” How fast they go will not only be up to Nicholas Roche but up to the entire team.