Nicolas Roche Tour Diary in the independent

mloc123

Roche was referred to as the best placed British and Irish rider on Sky News last night

Blowfish

Lumen wrote: »

AFAIK he was born in France, has dual citizenship and only spent a couple of years in Ireland, so it seems a perfectly reasonable point of discussion.

He was born in France but grew up here, before moving back to France some time in his mid teens. A guy I hung around with as a teenager was actually in the same year as him in Blackrock College and afair Nico even played rugby for them at one point.

Considering it's effictively most of his formative years he spent here, there's no reason why he shouldn't consider himself Irish.

ednwireland

you cant hold 2 passports from 2 eu nations as as far as i know

Lumen

Blowfish wrote: »

He was born in France but grew up here, before moving back to France some time in his mid teens.

I don't think it has any bearing on his nationality, but I don't think that true. I read that they moved to Ireland in 1996, when Nicholas would have been about 12.

TinyExplosions

ednwireland wrote: »

you cant hold 2 passports from 2 eu nations as as far as i know

You can (in the case of Ireland anyway):

In most cases dual/multiple nationality is unrestricted for Irish citizens, as far as the Irish government is concerned. If you are Irish by naturalisation (as opposed to birth, descent or marriage) the Irish government could under the law take away your Irish citizenship if you became British, but it's not an automatic process. Britain will not ask you to give up your Irish citizenship or passport if you become either a British subject or a British citizen. If you hold any other citizenships you should check with the authorities concerned.

RobFowl

ednwireland wrote: »

you cant hold 2 passports from 2 eu nations as as far as i know

You can ! My kids have Irish and British ones !

on_the_nickel

RobFowl wrote: »

You can ! My kids have Irish and British ones !

Mine too. The little Sassanach b*stards. :cool:

Lumen

ROCHE EXTENDS WITH AG2R LA MONDIALE

Following a very successful second Tour de France, the Ag2r La Mondiale team has decided to extend the current contract it has with Irish pro Nicolas Roche.

He and the French squad have reached an agreement for the 26 year old to remain with the team until the end of 2012. He had been rumoured to be of interest to Team Sky, the new British ProTour squad, but will stay with the team he first joined in 2009.

Roche yesterday finished 15th overall in the Tour de France, being best placed of the team. He was sixteen minutes 59 seconds behind the winner Alberto Contador, an improvement of over 20 minutes on his performance of the year before.

The squad was also fourth in the team classification in the race, and won a stage with Christophe Riblon.

Roche has moved up to 49th in the UCI world rankings, which were released today. Ireland remains 22nd.

el tel

ednwireland wrote: »

you cant hold 2 passports from 2 eu nations as as far as i know

I do. Means there is never a panic when one comes up for renewal as they overlap by 5 years.

Hail 2 Da Thief

Nico will be writing diaries from Saturday for Paris-Nice.

Dura Ace

His diaries might form the basis for this book due out later in the year.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Nicolas-Roche-Inside-Peleton/dp/1848271107/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1298934132&sr=8-1