Roche declares for France

See below the son of Stephen has decided to cycle for France. I guess it wil be only a matter of time before we have a similar situation with our football team as the offspring from the first real generation of non nationals start to reach the age where this is a possibility. It will be interesting to see how we react as until now the boot has been on the other foot.



"The news early that Nicolas Roche, son of the 1987 Tour de France winner Stephen Roche and one of Irish cycling’s most exciting prospects, has decided to declare for France comes at a mixed time for the sport in Ireland. There have been some good performances so far this season but also difficulties for riders, with some being affected by injury in the first months of the year.

Roche’s loss is a big blow given that he was the only Irish rider currently part of the new ProTour division, a revolutionary composition of 20 teams and 27 races which seeks to do for cycling what Formula One has done for motor racing.

The goal of the ProTour is to ensure that the best teams are at all the top races such as the Tour of Italy, Tour de France, Tour of Spain and the one-day classics, providing a greater return for sponsors plus heightened media and public interest.

Ireland’s other riders, such as Mark Scanlon and Philip Deignan, currently have to rely on wild card entries for their Ag2R Prévoyance team to get into the top events. Roche had raced on the Irish national squad in events such as the world championships for several seasons but now, at 20 years of age, he has decided to opt for France. He has a French mother, was born there and says he will spend the rest of his life there after his racing career ends.

“I am sad to give up my Irish nationality,” he said. “It has been a hard decision. At the beginning, it took me a lot of time to get over it. But now it is done. Between November and February, I was not so happy, because I was leaving behind a lot of stuff that I like, including a big Cycling Ireland family of riders that I was part of.”

Roche initially said that he was required by government officials to choose one passport over another, although this has proved not to be the case. His Cofidis team is French, however, and so this may well have been a factor in his unexpected decision"

This is from the Irish Circle website

this news has been around for a while hasnt it

Well he was born there and his Ma is French . And Irish cycling teams are not at the races. Hardly surprising.

were always surprised when some one doesn't want to compete for ireland.
never anything said when some english born player with english parent decides to play for ireland.

Well the original spin he put on it was that the French don't allow dual citizenship, but that doesn't seem the case from that article.

In fairness he took Cycling Ireland grants etc coming up through the system, and competed for Ireland. Bit different from coming up with French help. Kelly was better anyway.