ROCHE AGREES — TEAM SKY DO LOOK WEAKER

IF Richie Porte believes Team Sky are not as strong as they have been going into previous editions of the Tour de France, Nicolas Roche agrees and has a simple explanation as to why: neither Porte nor Roche are still there. Roche left Sky to join Porte at BMC Racing in the winter, and will return to the Tour this summer to help Porte in his bid to break Sky’s stranglehold on the race. Chris Froome is looking to win his third straight Tour title and Sky their fifth in six editions, but his former team-mate and good friend Porte looks the man most likely to deny him. In his pre-race press conference on Thursday, Porte said: ‘Sky are probably not as strong as they have been,’ and Roche was quick to agree with a smile. ‘I think so,’ he said. ‘We’re not there!’ Porte was part of the Sky teams that helped Bradley Wiggins win the Tour in 2012, and Froome to win in 2013 and 2015 while Roche rode in support of Froome in 2015, although the 32-year-old was left out of last year’s team. ‘More seriously, they have a very strong team but so do we,’ Roche added. ‘They’re saying they have four or five riders in their squad who have finished in the top 10 of grand tours before, but so do we. ‘This year we have as strong a team whereas in other years they were capable of crushing any other team.’ This summer marks 30 years since Nicolas’ father Stephen won the Tour as part of a remarkable triple alongside the Giro d’Italia and the World Road Race Championships. Now his son is hoping he can join him for a celebration in Paris as part of a Tour-winning team himself. ‘My role is pretty clear and I’m not going to do anything crazy because my dad won the Tour 30 years ago,’ he added.