Roche leaves Sky to sign with BMC for next season

Nicolas Roche will leave Team Sky to join BMC Racing for next season, his new team have announced.

Roche, 32, joined Team Sky in 2015 from Tinkoff. Though he served primarily as a domestique, he won stage 18 of the 2015 Vuelta a Espana and finished second overall in this year’s Tour de Yorkshire while wearing the British team’s colours. This summer he secured his second Irish road race title, also winning the time trial, but was omitted from Team Sky’s squad for the Tour de France.

At BMC he will join former Team Sky teammate Richie Porte, who finished fifth in the Tour after moving to BMC in the winter.

“I’m super excited becausebmcracingteam is a team that rides with a lot of the characteristics that I like,” Roche said.

“They’re always up the front, riding with aggression and trying to make an exciting race. Looking ahead to the 2017 season, my main role will be to really support Richie Porte and Tejay van Garderen in their general classification ambitions, and hopefully I’ll have a good go at the Vuelta a Espana.”

Roche is the son of Stephen Roche, who won the Tour de France, Giro d’italia and world championships in 1987, and the cousin of Etixx-quickstep rider Dan Martin.

Meanwhile, world champion Peter Sagan will race for ambitious German team Bora-hansgrohe next season as they move to Worldtour level.

The 26-year-old Slovakian, who won the points leader’s green jersey for a fifth straight year in last month’s Tour de France, won the World Road Race Championships in Richmond, Virginia last year and will hope to defend his crown in Doha, Qatar before switching teams.

Sagan’s move – on a threeyear contract – has been rumoured for a month, following the announcement that his current employers Tinkoff would be closing down at the end of the season as Russian businessman Oleg Tinkov withdraws his backing.