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Morgan Treacy/INPHO
The Jerries

Meet Ireland's Olympic team: Nicolas Roche

A veteran of the Games at this stage, the 32-year-old will hope third time’s a charm.

Event: Cycling (Men’s road race).

Who is he? The son of 1987 Tour de France and Giro d’Italia winner Stephen, Nico is a professional cyclist with Team Sky. He’s also a cousin of Dan Martin – who will be his road race team-mate in Rio.

Where’s he from? Roche was born in France in 1984 but spent his early years going back and forth to Ireland quite regularly. Between 1996 and 1999, he lived in Dublin full-time and attended Blackrock College for a year when he was fifteen. Roche gave back his French citizenship in 2012. After spending some time in Varese, just north of Milan, he now calls Monaco home.

Olympic CV: This will be Roche’s third Olympics, having represented Ireland at the 2008 Games in Beijing (he finished 63rd) and in London four years later (he finished 89th).

Road to Rio: Roche was not named on the Sky team for this summer’s Tour de France – the first time he’s missed the race since 2008. With his two-year contract up in August, it remains unclear whether or not he’ll stay with the team. Still, despite the uncertainty, Roche has kept his focus and claimed the Irish national road race win back at the end of June. He also finished 2nd Overall at the Tour de Yorkshire two months earlier while in September 2015, he claimed Stage 18 of the Vuelta.

When does he start? Saturday, 6 August is when Roche will join the other 143 riders on the start-line for the 256km trek.

Where can I follow him? You can track Nico’s Olympic adventures via his Twitter account while he’s on Instagram too (@roche_nicholas) and Facebook.

What he says: Dream big – aim for the stars‘.

Medal chances? With Dan Martin having an excellent season, many are tipping him for a possible podium place. But it looks a little less optimistic regarding Roche.

We’re saying two Jerries out of five.

jerry2

And here’s something you probably didn’t know…A big U2 fan, Roche has the words ‘With or without you’ tattooed on his arm.

Let’s hope it will be a beautiful day for Nico in Rio and that he won’t be stuck in a moment he can’t get out of.

I’ll get my coat…

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Meet Ireland’s Olympic team: Sara Treacy

Read more of The42′s Team Ireland profiles here >

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