NICO ROCHE WILL go in search of his first Tour de France stage victory when he makes his ninth start in the race next month, after the Irish cyclist was named in Team Sunweb’s eight-rider line-up. 

The 34-year-old will take to the start line in Brussels on 6 July in what will be his 21st Grand Tour event appearance.

Roche, who was with Team Sky for two seasons, is joined on Team Sunweb by Søren Kragh Andersen, Nikias Arndt, Cees Bol, Chad Haga, Lennard Kämna, Wilco Kelderman and Michael Matthews.

With Dutch star Tom Dumoulin unavailable through injury, the German-based team have had to reassess their strategy for the 2019 edition.

Coach Aike Visbeek explained: “This year our focus at the Tour de France will be to go for stage success throughout the race. We have been in this situation before when we have had to change from a general classification goal to focusing on stage results and I am confident we can do well again.

We’ll have opportunities for good results with Michael in the sprint stages and reduced bunch sprints. Nikias will be our captain and with Giro stage winner Chad, we bring extra power for the both the TTT and TT. With Wilco, Nicholas and Søren we aim for opportunities in the more difficult hilly and mountain stages.

Meanwhile, defending Tour de France champion Geraint Thomas and in-form Egon Bernal will be the joint leaders for this year’s renewal after their team, Ineos, confirmed their line-up.

Shorn of four-time winner Chris Froome following his horrific crash earlier this month, Ineos have opted to share the race leadership duties.

Thomas goes into the race on the back of also having had a crash in June in the Tour de Suisse — though the repercussions were not as serious as in Froome’s case — a race that Colombian rider Bernal confirmed his burgeoning talent by winning.

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