Junior Tour of Ireland - NE

Waterford, Ireland, August 6-11, 2002

by Shane Stokes

Great Britain road race champion Steffan Wilson
Eventual prologue winner Nicolas Roche concentrates before the off
Mark Cassidy before his effort
Second placed Joost Van Leijen and team-mate Rudi Van Houts
James Lawless warms up
Levi Heimans before his ride, which netted him fourth place on the day
Barry Woods looks good coming to the finish
Irish Junior Road Race champion Paidi O'Brien prepares for 1.7 miles of flat out effort
Top three on the stage - Van Leijen, Roche and Theo Hardwick, plus former Irish Senior road race champion John McQuaid
Points, race and mountains leaders
Henry Whelan and Sinead Power congratulate Joost Van Leijen, Paidi O'Brien and Nicolas Roche
Nicolas Roche talks about his winning ride
Like father, like son. Nicolas Roche and dad Stephen.
Yellow! One Roche shares his experience in putting on the golden tunic.
Proud father Stephen Roche saying a few words.

Pedalling in his father's foosteps - Nicolas Roche (Team Stephen Roche) takes in some deep breaths during the waterlogged 58 mile stage
Nicolas Roche (Team Stephen Roche) powers away solo, and at one stage enjoyed a two minute advantage
The pooled efforts of the chasing group were not enough to bring back strongman Nicolas Roche (Team Stephen Roche)
Roche's aggressive, audacious move caused panic amongst the contenders behind
Nicolas Roche (Team Stephen Roche) shows the pain of a 28 mile solo breakaway
On the podium, Nicolas Roche (Team Stephen Roche, middle) stands proudly as the overall race leader, ahead of D. Bellemakers (Tempo BMV Veldhoven A, left) and A. Esposito (Team Stephen Roche, right)
The leader's of the various classifications - Nicolas Roche (Team Stephen Roche, middle) wears the yellow jersey as the overall race leader; Joost Van Leijen (Tempo BMV Veldhoven, left) wears the blue points jersey; Paidi O'Brien (Stena Ireland) wears the climber's jersey and Theo Hardwick (Stena Ireland) wears the white jersey as best first year junior.
A very content young Nicolas Roche (Team Stephen Roche) calmly and politely answers questions as he dons yet another yellow jersey

Rudi Van Houts went clear before the top in a bid to win the stage
Rivals on the French circuit, buddies over here
The yellow jersey does another interview with commentator Paddy Fitzsimons
The podium at the end of Stage 4
Paidi O'Brien and Esposito went clear inside the first ten miles of stage 4
The race leader gets some of the stiffness massaged out of his legs prior to stage 4
Paidi O'Brien and Theo Hardwick with Stena-Ireland team manager Tom Keenan
The white jersey concentrates during the stage
Race leader Nicolas Roche and team-mate Anthony Esposito chat at the back of the bunch