CYCLING: IRELAND'S Nicolas Roche had an excellent debut Tour, exceeding most if not all expectations with his performance over the 21 stages.

Despite having to work for over a week for his team-mate Rinaldo Nocentini, who was then leading the race, he was an impressive 23rd overall, as well as placing fifth in the best young rider rankings and sixth in the points classification.

He was also second, fourth, eighth, eighth, 10th and 12th on stages, and could well have won in Bourg-Saint-Maurice last Tuesday had his group caught the four leaders a little sooner, prior to the attack of the Basque rider Mikel Astarloa.

On Saturday’s gruelling stage Roche eventually placed 49th on the stage, seven minutes and 13 seconds behind Juan Manuel Garate (Rabobank).

He was 90th in Paris.